Chicago Suburbs

Looking to change things up after a long and taxing day of calling on dealers in the Chicago area, I was wanting some Italian food that evening. As I usually stay out near O'Hare International Airport when I'm in Chicago, I was looking for something in the area that I hadn't been to before. My new GPS gave me some suggestions in the area and there was one place - Bella Sera - that I wasn't familiar with. (see map) I thought I'd give it a chance and see what Bella Sera was all about.

Over 50 years ago, Holiday Inn built a hotel along Mannheim Road near O'Hare. It was one of the first hotels built in the area and it had a restaurant on the premises - the Armada Room. When the movie The Blues Brothers was filmed in the Chicago area in the late 70's, the Armada Room was prominently featured in a scene in the movie where Jake and Elwood Blues went to convince former bandmates "Murph and the Magic Tones" to come back to work for them.

The restaurant changed hands - and names - over the years becoming Spiazzo's, then Cafe USA, before Ron Kammo opened Bella Sera Restaurant and Lounge 20 years ago. It is now located in what looked to be a rather rundown Quality Inn that had a local disaster restoration company working on some renovations on the building. Yellow tape and fencing was prevalent on the outside of the building. But the front of the restaurant looked like it had just had a facelift, so I was somewhat hopeful about the place. There was also limited parking, but I was able to snag what proved to be the last space in front of the restaurant. Everything in my body was telling me this was a mistake, but I decided to trudge ahead and see what it was all about.

It was truly a restaurant/lounge with a three-sided bar area, neon lights and pop/dance music pumping from the sound system. The ambience was pretty horrid for an Italian restaurant. Well, really for ANY restaurant. The bar area had a number of people sitting there, but there were only a couple of tables that were filled in the dining area. My deep down feeling was that I needed to flee the joint, but I decided to stay.

There was only one waitress working in the restaurant, a young lady by the name of Yovana. She dropped off a menu and said that she'd be right back. Well, she wasn't. It was over five minutes before she was able to get back to me to take my drink order. In the meantime, I looked through the menu to see what they had available.

The menu wasn't very lengthy, but they did have a nice offering of items. Chicken parm, chicken Marsala, lasagna, grilled salmon, and steaks were on the main entree page. They also had pizza at Bella Sera, as well. But the thing that caught my eye was the "Build-Your-Own" pasta page.

You start out by selecting one of four different types of pasta - mostaciolli, bow-tie, fettuccine or spaghetti. Then from there you have a choice of six different types of sauces including a straight marinara, a meaty bolognese, an alfredo sauce, a spicy diablo sauce, a simple olive oil topping, and the Concasse sauce which had chopped tomatoes, garlic, and fresh basil in an olive oil. You can top off the pasta dish with a variety of vegetables, chicken, shrimp, Italian sausage or meatballs.

And that was the route that I took - well, once I was able to get Yovana back over to the table to take my food order. (She did apologize a couple of times during the course of the evening, but I was surprised that she was the only one working the floor of the restaurant.) I got the mostaciolli with the bolognese sauce, sliced fresh mushrooms, and four meatballs.

For as slow as the service was and as bad as the ambience of the place was, the pasta entree was - I felt - outstanding. The bolognese sauce was meaty and had chunks of tomatoes mixed in. The meatballs had a great Italian herb taste, and the combination of the mostaciolli pasta with the fresh mushrooms was a wonderful taste experience. I was really glad that I didn't bail on the place when I had the chance - more than once.

Sometimes you can't judge the book by the cover. But, quite actually, the outside of Bella Sera was nicer than the inside. The cheesy lounge decor, the neon lights and the pumping dance music aside - not to mention the slow service - I forgot about all of that with the pasta combination dinner I got that evening. It was one of the more surprising meals I've had at a restaurant where my expectations were so low by the time my meal was served to me. The mostaciolli with the meatballs, bologese sauce and sliced fresh mushrooms was simply outstanding. Had the meal been mediocre - at best - I would have been more harsh on the overall experience of the restaurant. But the food was good enough to balance out the bad that I experienced at Bella Sera.

I've driven by the Morrison Roadhouse countless times over the past 15 years that I've been traveling to Chicago for work. It's always sort of intrigued me as it's been in business for 85 years and was probably a true country "road house" when it opened in 1932. One night on my way back to my hotel, I decided to stop in to have something to eat and to check the place out.

Morrison Roadhouse is located along Harlem Ave. in Niles, not far from where Harlem intersects with Milwaukee and Howard Avenues, and just north of the intersection of Harlem and Touhy. (see map) I was able to find a parking spot - the last one that was open in the lot next to the building and went in. I would have to characterize Morrison Roadhouse as a sports bar more than anything, but it did have sort of a neighborhood tavern feeling to the place.

Morrison Roadhouse features a large rectangular bar in the middle with a number of tables and booths around the bar area. There was a game room toward the back of the place, as well.

I ended up taking a seat at the bar and was greeted by Brittany, one of two young ladies working behind the bar that night. (It turned out that both Brittany and the other bartender were also the servers for tables - more on that later on.) I ordered up a Revolution Anti-Hero IPA to enjoy while I looked at the menu.

There seemed to be a lot of regulars in the place, especially around the bar area. Brittany and the other bartender were having conversations with a number of people on all sides of the bar. The clientele was mostly male at the bar - many of them middle-aged to older men. I fit in pretty well with that demographic.

Now, I couldn't find much historical information about the place other than its present day owner is a guy by the name of Robert Castle. I asked the other bartender working at the bar if Morrison was the name of the small town that Niles possibly engulfed at some point. "Hmmm... I don't think so," she said. "I think it's named after the guy who started it."

A guy seated next to me said, "I remember my parents used to come into this place and it was sort of a fancy dress-up place that was more of a mixed-drink crowd than a beer bar. But that was in the 60's."

The menu at Morrison Roadhouse was extensive with a number of appetizers, salads, sandwiches, burgers and steak sandwiches. They had a number of deep-fried appetizers on the menu, and there were nearly a dozen different types of salads to choose from, as well as a like number of burgers on the menu. There was about 10 different chicken sandwiches and a number of wraps to choose from. Sandwiches ranged from a Cuban sandwich, a beef sandwich that is slow roasted in Guinness beer, a classic reuben, and something called the St. Jarvis Beef sandwich that featured Italian-style beef served on ciabatta bread and topped with mozzarella cheese, giardiniera, and pepperoncini's. I looked long and hard at that sandwich, but I ordered something else.

The burgers sounded good, but I was sort of burnt out on burgers for the time being. I ended up ordering the toasted Italian sandwich with a side of tater tots. Well, it took me a long time to be able to order it. Remember, there were only two people behind the bar and they were also table servers, as well. I was done with my first beer and no one was coming back to check on me. I just couldn't believe for as busy a place that Morrison Roadhouse was that evening that they didn't have more wait staff. I had to get Brittany's attention to order up the sandwich - a good 10 minutes after I was done with my first beer and ready to order something to eat.

The sandwich was all right - it featured French bread with sliced ham, pepperoni and salami with mozzarella cheese over the top of it that was put under a broiler to melt the cheese. Then it was topped with chopped lettuce, red onions and tomatoes and finished off with an Italian dressing. It was nothing fancy, but I liked it. I've always been partial to these type of Italian sandwiches since I first used to have the "hoagies" at Pizza Hut when I was a teenager. I couldn't even begin to eat a Pizza Hut pizza these days, but if they ever brought back the hoagie on their menu I'd stop in to try one. But I have to believe that the toasted Italian sandwich at Morrison Roadhouse would be even better than a Pizza Hut hoagie.

The tater tots were good, too. They had some hot sauce in a caddy on the bar and I was able to drizzle some Frank's Hot Sauce on the tater tots to give them a little zip in taste. Tater tots are getting to be about the only potato I will eat at places like this. That is, when they have them on the menu.

Service continued to be slow as the two bartenders were obviously overwhelmed by having to work the bar and be the wait staff for tables the whole time I was there. I was sort of peeved that they wouldn't have more people in there working as the place was more than half full. And I'm sure other people were just as frustrated as I was. But other than that, the toasted Italian sandwich was good, as were the tater tots I got on the side. OK, so I was able to finally stop into Morrison Roadhouse. And it was all right. I think that if you're a regular there, you'd probably feel more comfortable in the place. I'm just not certain that I'll be going back anytime soon.

I have a dealer out in the far northwest suburbs of Chicago and he and I were talking one day about our favorite burgers in the Chicago area. He then told me about a place that wasn't too far away from his store that he thought had a great burger, a place called The Assembly. "You haven't had a burger an Assembly burger," he asked me incredulously. Right then and there, I put The Assembly on my "Restaurants to Visit" list on Google Maps. Earlier this year, I finally had a chance to stop in and try one of their burgers.

The story behind The Assembly starts with Glenn Taylor, a long time CPA. However, his off-hours hobby was home-brewing beer. Along with his sons, Gary and Steve, and his wife, Amy, the Taylors were having fun with coming up with different types of beers in their basement.

Glenn Taylor was getting burned out on his accountant job and he certainly enjoyed brewing beers with his sons. He ended up chucking his CPA career in the early 90's and in 1994 the Taylor family opened up a brewpub - Taylor Brewing Company - in an old furniture factory in Naperville. By 1999, the Taylors had moved the brew pub to a new location along Butterfield Road in Lombard.

The man who Glenn Taylor worked for as a CPA had a side business that he had opened in 1978 - The Assembly American Bar and Cafe. If he wasn't enjoying brewing beer at home, Taylor liked to hang out at The Assembly with its fun atmosphere and regular clientele. In 1995, Taylor's old boss informed him that he was looking to retire and sell The Assembly. Glenn Taylor jumped at the chance and bought The Assembly later that year. After Taylor Brewing Company shut down in late 2011, Gary Taylor came over to The Assembly to run the day-to-day operations.

It was a cold and rainy spring day when I made it out to The Assembly which is located between W. Higgins Road and Interstate 90 along Barrington Road in Hoffman Estates. (see map) I pulled in just before noon and I took pause for a moment when I saw "Awesome Food Here" spelled out underneath The Assembly sign on the front of the building. I sort of cringed when I saw that thinking that they were trying too hard to lure in customers.

The inside of The Assembly was dimly lit, cozy and looked a little dated. There was a large rectangular bar in the middle of place with step-up booths on the outer side of the floor plan. There were a number of flat panel televisions that were hung throughout the restaurant. There was an appreciable number of people in the place when I got there and more came in through the noon hour. Many of the patrons seemed to be older men.

I took a seat at the bar and was greeted by Brenda who doubled as a bartender and grill cook. She gave me a menu and I ordered up a Sweetwater 420 extra pale ale that they had in cans. Her co-bartender that day was a spunky lady by the name of Denise. She was wearing a t-shirt that said on the back "I Hate Kale - I Like Burgers - Have a Burger".

The grill area for burgers was in between the bar counters. It featured a gas char-grill cooking surface and a flat cooking surface next to it. Opposite of the grill area was a condiment area where burgers were dressed. There was a kitchen for other items on the menu in the back of the restaurant.

The Assembly's gourmet burgers are their signature item on the menu. The burgers are all 10 ounce, never frozen beef patties that are blended with different cuts of beef to The Assembly's specification. Gary Taylor once said in on an on-line video that they serve over 1600 burgers a week and that loosely translated out to a total of over 2.5 million burgers in the 39 years The Assembly has been in business. Their Bionic Burger - topped with bacon, sautéed onions and a choice of Swiss, mozzarella or cheddar cheese - is also known as the Hulk Hogan Burger as the Hulkster himself named it "a bionic burger" after eating at The Assembly in the late 70's. It continues to be one of The Assembly's most popular burgers.

In addition to the Bionic Burger, The Assembly also has a Parmesan burger topped with garlic butter and Parmesan cheese, The Grand Champion that is topped with bacon, sautéed onions, grilled peppers, sautéed mushrooms and a choice of Swiss, mozzarella or cheddar cheese, and a Bloody Mary burger topped with bloody mary seasonings, tomatoes, pickles and finished with a green olive. They also had a burger that was topped with macaroni and cheese.

Their selection of gourmet burgers are the most prominent feature on the menu, but they also had a number of other items to choose from. The menu consisted of a number of pub-style appetizers, many of them deep-fried such as onion strings, mozzarella cheese triangles, fried pickles and mushrooms stuffed with a bread crumb mix of chopped bacon, celery, onion, and red and green peppers. They had five grilled chicken sandwiches, as well as entrees such as pork ribs, ribeye steaks, beef tenderloin filet medallions, and grilled tilapia. Corned beef reubens, as well as turkey reubens and turkey club sandwiches were also featured on the menu along with a variety of salads.

I ended up getting the mushroom and Swiss cheese burger. I asked Denise if I could get some bacon on the burger and she said it would be no problem. Creamy cole slaw came with the burger along with The Assembly's signature mushroom/onion sherry wine sauce. And I also got a choice of a potato side and it was a no-brainer for me to pick the tater tots. In fact, the tater tots come out about three or four minutes before the burger was placed in front of me.

The burger was thick, juicy and cooked to a perfect medium with a bit of pink in the middle. And when I mean it was juicy, well, it was a multi-napkin burger. The sautéed mushrooms were fresh and earthy, the bacon crisp and smoky, and the Swiss cheese was slathered on top of everything. The bun was soft, yet it held together very well with all the good gooeyness going on with the burger. The mushroom/onion sherry sauce was interesting - it was sort of thick and I suppose that you were supposed to put it on the burger. But I ended up dipping some of the tater tots into the sauce. And while the tater tots tasted good on their own, the mushroom/onion sherry wine sauce helped give them a savory taste.

I thought the burger at The Assembly was very good. It was thick, juicy and full of great flavor even without the sautéed mushrooms, bacon and Swiss cheese. The tater tots were a nice change of pace - especially outside of the states of Minnesota and North Dakota where tater tots are a potato staple. The cole slaw - honestly, I don't know if I even tried the cole slaw, I concentrated on the burger and the tater tots because they were so good. The interior of The Assembly appears to be a little dated, but it was still homey and comfortable in its feel. And the service I received sitting at the bar was very good. Overall, this was a very good place to get a very good burger.

There's nothing worse than being sick on the road. I contracted a bad cold earlier this year during a trip to Chicago and one day I just couldn't function very well. I needed some comfort food including some soup and I needed it quick. I did a quick search in the area to see if there was any place close to my hotel and found a little restaurant named Lola's Diner that sounded exactly like what I was looking for.

Lola's Diner is run by longtime restaurateurs Herman and Lola Rivera. The Rivera's also had a restaurant by the name of the Sunrise Diner in nearby Mount Prospect that they ran until they shut it down in the summer of 2013 to fully focus on running Lola's Diner. The Rivera's make many of their foods from scratch, soups are made in-house, and they use only fresh, locally-sourced items for many of their foods.

Lola's Diner is located along Busse Highway in Park Ridge, just east of the intersection of N. Dee Road. (see map) I was able to find some parking behind the place and went inside. It was an unseasonably cold early spring day and had snowed off and on as winter was still trying to hold on in the Chicagoland area. I was greeted by a hostess who took me to a booth in the corner of the restaurant. The diner was nice and clean with a parquet tile floor, light blue accents on the chairs and booth backs, a small 3-sided counter toward the back of the place, and a series of plexiglass columns that featured various model cars or trucks. This place just screamed, "We have comfort food!"

Since Lola's is open from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. through the week (7 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the weekends), they do both breakfast and lunch. And both menus are extensive with omelets, waffles, skillets, Swedish pancakes and crepes available for breakfast, while lunch features sandwiches, burgers, salads, wraps and panini melts. But the thing that jumped out at me on the menu were the hot plates they had listed.

They had a meatloaf plate, a hot turkey sandwich plate, a breaded pork tenderloin plate and a good ol' fashioned country fried steak. But I went with the hot beef sandwich with mashed potatoes and gravy. A cup of soup came with the hot beef sandwich for just a dollar more. I asked my waitress if I could get a bowl of soup and she said, "That would be a couple dollars for an upcharge." That would be no problem, I said.

One of the soups they had that day was just what the doctor ordered - lemon chicken rice soup. And it was excellent. It had a nice chicken broth with a hint of a lemony taste. The chicken chunks in the soup were teddy and tasty. And there was a lot of rice in the soup, as well. I could have just had the soup and I would have been happy. For a brief moment, I suddenly felt better.

The hot beef sandwich was served open faced with the mashed potatoes - made from real potatoes, not that boxed crap - off to the side. Some grilled asparagus came on the side. The beef was thinly cut, but it was a little tough and overcooked. The gravy was very good and helped out with the semi-toughness of the beef. There was a seasoning in the gravy - a spice - that I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was. But I liked the gravy with the potatoes and the roast beef. The asparagus was basically a throw away side. The asparagus was limp and lifeless. But that was all right - between the excellent soup and the very good gravy helping the taste of the beef and potatoes, I had more than enough food that day.

Unfortunately, my cold only intensified from there on out and I ended up spending the rest of the day and evening in bed at the hotel. But the comfort food I had from Lola's Diner helped ease the discomfort of my cold. While the beef was a little overcooked, the mashed potatoes - made from real potatoes - with the very good gravy was a spot-hitter. But I could have probably gotten a quart of the excellent lemon chicken rice soup to go and had that for some subsequent meals as I was trying to get over my cold. I was glad that I found Lola's Diner and I've already made a mental note to go there for breakfast some morning in the near future.

When I'm in Chicago for business - which seems like an awful lot as of late - my base of operations is usually the Hilton Garden Inn - O'Hare along River Road in Des Plaines. (see map) I've been staying there for years and I call it my "home away from home" when I'm in Chicago. The past three or four years, we've participated in a trade show just down the street and I've put some of my colleagues up at the place and many are amazed at the level of service they get and the overly pleasant nature many of the staff possess. "I've never stayed at a hotel where everyone is so nice," one of my colleagues remarked a couple years ago. While I'm usually not big on eating at a hotel, I have to say that the Garden Grill and Bar actually serves some pretty damned good food. I decided to let the secret out and tell you about this place where I like to stay.

I used to stay out in Addison at a Hampton Inn for a long time. But my wife and I stayed at the 9-story, 253 room Hilton Garden Inn near O'Hare International Airport during a Chicago excursion weekend not long after it opened in 2005 and I thought it was a nice place. Trying to save my company money, I kept staying out in Addison for basically $20 bucks a night less than what they were charging for rooms at the Hilton Garden Inn. Finally, I made the decision after driving for an hour and a half in rush hour traffic to get all the way out to Addison that it was worth the extra money in time saved and aggravation reduced to stay closer in. With access to the Tri-State Tollway, the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway and the Kennedy Expressway all within a mile of the hotel, I could easily go in any direction to get to appointments around the Chicago area.

After staying there as long as I have, I've been recognized as a regular customer and that has some advantages. While the hotel doesn't offer a Park-and-Fly program like other hotels around O'Hare, they do have shuttles that go to and from the airport every 20 minutes. Last year when my wife and I went to Hawaii for a week, the manager allowed me to park my car there while we were gone. We spent the night before we left at the hotel, shuttled to the airport the next morning, and then they picked us up at the airport when we got home a little over over a week later. It was sweet and saved us about $150 to $200 bucks.

The Hilton Garden Inn - O'Hare in Des Plaines is managed by The Raymond Group, a Middleton, WI-based hospitality company. Most of them are Hilton and Marriott-branded hotels and I've stayed in a number of Raymond properties around the Midwest during my travels. I'd have to say that all of the Raymond hotels that I've stayed at over the years are very nice, clean and comfortable. The Raymond Group got their start in the late 70's managing a number of Country Kitchen restaurants around Wisconsin and Illinois. By the early 80's, the group had branched out into hotel management with four Super 8 properties. In the mid-80's, the Raymond Group partnered with a hospitality company to develop hotels for the fast growing Hampton Inn hotels. In 1989, The Raymond Group was recognized as the "Developer of the Year" by the Hilton corporation for their work with Hampton Inn's. In 1994, the company sold their interests in Country Kitchen and began to solely develop hotels. Today, the company oversees three dozen hotel properties in 11 states.

About three years ago, I was traveling with one of my newer colleagues and a guy from one of our manufacturers through the Midwest. One night we stayed in a Hampton Inn in Omaha and I made the mistake of not booking us at a hotel with a bar. We stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn - O'Hare a couple nights later and they liked the bar so much that I was immediately absolved of all transgressions I committed on the trip. The bar is cozy and comfy with a couple of flat-panel televisions that are usually tuned in to a game involving a Chicago team. The main bartender through the week is a Greek guy by the name of Jim who speaks with a heavy Chicago accent. He's a great guy and he treats me like a friend every time I pull up a seat at the bar.

One of the perks as a Hilton Diamond member (actually, I'm a Hilton Lifetime Diamond member - I no longer have to annually qualify to earn that level) of staying at Hilton Garden Inn properties is the free breakfast. And the breakfast at the Hilton Garden Inn - O'Hare is very good. (The bacon they serve is exceptionally good!) The servers - Wioletta (pronounced Violetta), Maria, Lily, Elisa, and Vicki all know me and take great care of me.

A few years ago, I was staying at the hotel one night and I was stuck in traffic. A friend of mine was waiting for me at the hotel and I told him that I would be at least 45 minutes before I got to the hotel. He said that was no problem, he'd grab something to eat in the restaurant. He had the salmon that evening while he waited for me to show up. When I finally did get there, my friend was raving about the food. "This salmon is so fresh," he exclaimed. "I can't believe I'm having this at a hotel restaurant."

Jim came over and said to my friend, "Isn't it good? Didn't I tell you the salmon was great?"

Jim explained that they have their seafood flown in daily. "And we have a real chef in the kitchen," he said. "He knows his way around the kitchen."

The menu for the Garden Grill and Bar is definitely upscale compared to comparable Hilton Garden Inn's that I've stayed at. Steaks, seafood and pasta dishes make up many of the main entrees the restaurant serves. They also have burgers, sandwiches, soups and salads to choose from, as well. Their burgers are very good, I like their open faced tuna melt made with fresh tuna, and even though it's a little more salty than I like the French onion soup with housemade croutons and gruyere cheese is a spot hitter on a cold evening.

Every couple of weeks they will have a number of dinner specials that they feature in the restaurant. On this visit, it was around Mardi Gras time so they were featuring a number of Cajun-inspired dishes off the menu. It was a cold evening, spitting rain and an east wind off Lake Michigan that just cut through the body. I decided to eat at the bar and I sat down at the bar to let Jim take care of me. I started out with a Bell's Two Hearted Ale that they perpetually have on tap. (They also feature a rotating selection of local Chicago area breweries on tap. Jim is a beer guy and he knows his beer.)

One of the specials they had that evening was a bowl of gumbo. I've had gumbo in a number of places over the years and this was very good. It featured chunks of chicken, andouille sausage and shrimp along with chunks of vegetables. I gave it a little more of a kick with some Tabasco sauce, but on its own it was very flavorful.

Surprisingly, the meat loaf that they serve on a regular basis is also very good. I think I make great meat loaf at home and having meat loaf in a restaurant is usually a dicey proposition. But the meat loaf they have at the Garden Grill and Bar is well above average. For one of their specials that evening they kicked it up a notch with a Cajun meat loaf. It featured Cajun spices on the meat loaf and a somewhat spicy sauce. Usually, their meat loaf comes with mashed potatoes, but the Cajun meat loaf came with white rice and a side of fresh sweet corn kernels. The spiciness on the meat loaf wasn't overly hot, but it was enough that it got my attention. It made me think that I could make a Cajun-style meat loaf at home, it tasted so good.

So, my little secret is now out. The Garden Grill and Bar has some excellent food for a hotel restaurant. The Cajun meat loaf special along with the gumbo they had that evening were both very good and hit the spot on a cold evening. But other things that I've had in the past have also been very good - surprisingly good considering most Hilton Garden Inn's that I've stayed at don't compare in the quality of the food served at the Hilton Garden Inn - O'Hare. The staff is always courteous, friendly, and helpful. This is my home-away-from-home when I go to Chicago for business and one of the reasons is the very good food they serve at the Garden Grill and Bar.

A place I'd really been wanting to try for quite sometime is an Italian restaurant in the Chicago suburb of Park Ridge by the name of Nonna Silvia's. When I found out that there was some family lineage between one of my new favorite Italian restaurants on the northwest side of Chicago - Pasta d'Arte (click here to see the Road Tips entry on Pasta d'Arte) - then I knew that I really wanted to try Nonna Silvia's. My first visit to Nonna Silvia's was a strike-out - they were having one of their four-course/wine dinners the evening I showed up and I couldn't get in. But on a couple of subsequent visits, I was finally able to give the place a try.

Cousins Steve Marti and John Giannini are the men behind Nonna Silvia's. Both were raised on their grandmother Silvia Giannini's food while growing up. Marti and Giannini cut their culinary teeth while working at their uncle's restaurant Via Venuto (click here to read the Road Tips entry on Via Venuto).

Pictured right - Steve Marti and John Giannini

Steve Marti was trained as a chef by his brother and by a number of chefs in Italy. Getting together with John Giannini after Marti came back to the U.S., the cousins opened Nonna Silvia's in 2000 using many of the base recipes handed down from their grandmother who grew up in the Italian countryside, but adding a contemporary take to many of the dishes they make.

Nonna Silvia's is located at the corner of North Canfield Ave. and West Talcott Road in Park Ridge. (see map) There's diagonal parking along Canfield from Nonna Silvia's and down, and there's also parking across the street to the southeast in a lot after 5 p.m.

As I said, the first time that I tried to go to Nonna Silvia's, they were packed from a four-course wine dinner they have scheduled from time to time. The hostess apologized profusely when I came in after telling me there were no seats to be had that evening. I ended up going back the next night when it wasn't anywhere close to being as busy as it was the night before.

Nonna Silvia's is not that large with two cozy dining areas in the place. The front dining area has a small bar while the back dining area also features a small bar and can be used for private parties or receptions.

I was seated in the front dining room along a wall and given a menu to look over. My server for the evening, a man with a thick Eastern European accent by the name of Karol, came over to greet me. I ordered up a glass of the Avalon cabernet to start out with while I looked through the menu.

The menu consisted of antipasto appetizers such as grilled or fried calamari, beef carpaccio, grilled portobello mushroom caps, and Prince Edward Island mussels in a San Marzano tomato broth with fresh basil, garlic, and red pepper flakes. I almost got those along with an order of baked little neck clams as my dinner.

But the main entree options were just too good to pass up on my first visit. Pasta dishes - with all pasta made from scratch in the kitchen - included pumpkin ravioli, linguine vongoli with clams, gnocchi in a vodka cream sauce, and Nonna Silvia's signature dish - a housemade Swiss chard fettuccine mixed with extra virgin olive oil, roasted garlic, cherry tomatoes, red pepper flakes, and topped with a parmigiano reggiano cheese.

In addition to pasta dishes, Nonna Silvia's had bone-in Cajun spiced pork chops, a red snapper entree, a couple of chicken dishes, a beef tenderloin filet with a blue cheese crust and served in a shiitake porto mushroom reduction sauce with garlic mashed potatoes. But something else on the entree list caught my eye and I ordered that up.

With my meal, I got a basket of fresh baked bread. Now, the bread was absolutely fabulous. It had a thin crust that wasn't too crunchy and the inner part was soft, spongy and literally melted in my mouth.

I got the house salad which consisted of organic greens with sliced cucumbers, halved cherry tomatoes, shaved carrots and topped with a red wine vinaigrette dressing. The salad was fine, but it was at this point that I started to notice something. My server was ignoring me.

Now, eating out alone is always a tricky part of traveling for a living. Finding restaurants that are keen on making sure the solo diner is comfortable and welcome has been easier as the years have gone on as restaurateurs have figured out that single diners can make up a significant portion of their business. I'm still self-conscious enough when I dine alone in a nice restaurant, but a server who is friendly and accommodating can help out a lot. (Plus, it's bad enough when loud-mouthed diners point out to others at their table that you're eating alone, as what happened on my second visit to Nonna Silvia's. A typical Chicago wise-ass saw me sitting along at the table next to him, his wife, and another couple and he told his wife to go over and sit with me as I was all alone. It was pretty embarrassing and I damned near got up and walked out.)

In this instance, I noticed that Karol - who was very friendly with a number of tables he was working around me - had offered freshly cracked black pepper to a table of four people who had gotten their salads after me. I was never offered the fresh black pepper. Karol wordlessly placed the salad in front of me and scampered away. I just sort of brushed it off as him being busy.

For my main entree that evening, I got the veal piccata. It featured three veal cutlets, pan-fried and served with capers and garlic on a bed of linguine in a lemon/white wine sauce. The veal was tender and delicious, as was the linguine in the sauce. The linguine noodles were thick, yet soft and pliable - cooked to perfection. Along with the sharp and salty taste of the capers, as well as the pungent fresh chopped fresh garlic there were a lot of taste sensations going on all at once.

However, Karol continued to ignore me. Not once did he come over to check on me or ask if I needed anything else. I was nearly finished with my glass of wine and I would have ordered up a second glass to savor with my dinner. My water glass, too, was nearly empty and I would have liked to have some more water to counter the salty taste of the capers. Plus, I really needed a spoon to twirl my linguine with my fork. As it was, I was having to twirl it on the plate, but that wasn't working well thanks to the laws of gravity and the lemon/white sauce.

As I continued with my meal, Karol continued to accommodate the tables with three or four people seated at them around me. He carried on conversations with them - I was guessing that some may have been regular diners. But he continued to ignore me, right up to and after my plate had been removed by a busboy. I could only shake my head thinking that he could have been a LOT more attentive to my needs as a solo diner. When he dropped off the check (not asking if I wanted any dessert - which I didn't), he laid it on the table in front of me and merely said, "Thank you, sir." Let me just say that Karol didn't get any more than a 10% tip from me that evening. And I could make the argument that the 10% was possibly too much of a tip. I was extremely disappointed with the level of service I received that evening.

Having been thoroughly disappointed in the service, but being thoroughly happy with all aspects of my food, I knew that I couldn't let the lack of attentive service by one person stop me from trying Nonna Silvia's again. Besides, when I was there on my first visit, a table of four seated near me got a couple of pizzas that looked absolutely great. Thin crush, fresh toppings - and plenty of them. It was my kind of pizza. I had to go back to Nonna Silvia's and try their pizza.

It was about two months after my initial visit to Nonna Silvia's when I went back into the place to get one of their pizzas. I was seated at a table in the middle of the cozy dining room (close enough to the table of four people with the jack-ass who made the joke of having his wife go sit with me because I was by myself) and given a menu. The only problem I saw, initially, were that the pizzas they had on the menu were Italian artisan-style pizza. They had a margherita pizza with San Marzano tomatoes, fresh basil and bocconcini mozzarella cheese balls; a house-made duck sausage pizza with goat cheese and bocconcini; and a rustic Italian-style pizza with sun-dried tomatoes, black olives, sliced red onions with marinara and mozzarella cheese.

I was there for a couple minutes - they were busier than the last time I was in - and I noticed Karol was there that evening. Thankfully, a lady by the name of Rachel rushed past the table, stopped for a moment and came back to me. "I'll be with you in a moment," she said somewhat breathlessly. "Can I get you anything to drink in the meantime? I ordered up an Anchor Steam beer and she cheerily said, "Great! I'll get it for you and be right back."

She came back a couple minutes later and said, "Gosh, I'm sorry. We're out of the Anchor Steam." I ordered up a Revolution Brewing Co. Anti-Hero IPA instead. "We have that one, I know for sure," she said to me in an assured and good-natured tone.

When Rachel came back with my beer, she started to give me the specials for the evening. (Hmmm... come to think of it, Karol never offered any specials to me the night I was there for my previous visit. Maybe they didn't have any that particular night, but I doubt it.) I stopped her and told her that I was going to get a pizza. I was getting ready to order the roasted mushroom medley pizza with the burrata cheese and marinara sauce when Rachel said, "We can do just about anything on a pizza. Sausage, black olives, Canadian bacon..."

I asked if they could do my standard - Italian sausage, pepperoni and mushroom - a 10-inch size. (They also have a 12-inch pizza available.) "Absolutely," Rachel exclaimed. "Mmmm... That's sounds delicious! I'll get it in right away for you." Rachel's demeanor was already making up for the lack of service I received on my first visit.

When she brought the pizza out to me about 15 minutes later, I was ready to eat. She sat this pizza down in front of me with a load of sausage chunks, fresh sliced mushrooms and pepperoni slices all mixed in with fresh mozzarella and a marinara sauce. The thin-crust of the pizza was light and flaky, but held together very well with all the weight on top.

And the overall taste of the pizza was excellent. This was one of the better thin-crust pizzas I've had in all my travels. While it wasn't big, it was more than filling with all the toppings. By the time I was done, I was more than satiated.

And Rachel couldn't have been a better server. She poured my beer into new glasses at the table with each one I ordered (I had three - and the pizza went very well with beer), she checked on me at least twice while I was waiting on the pizza and a couple more times after the pizza arrived. She did everything that Karol didn't on my first visit. You think I'm throwing Karol under the bus in this entry? I am. But Rachel did more than enough on this visit to make up for the poor service I received on my initial visit to Nonna Silvia's.

I knew that I needed to give Nonna Silvia's a second chance after the horrible service I received on my first visit. Even with that said, the food I had on both visits was outstanding. The veal piccata I had on my first visit was excellent, and the pizza I had on my second visit was exceptional. My server on the second visit, Rachel, more than made up for the crappy service I received on my first visit. She made me feel welcome and she was attentive and pleasant during my second visit. I'm glad I went back to Nonna Silvia's and I'll probably be going back again sometime soon.

There's a place that I've been wanting to try that's located not too far from the hotel I stay at near O'Hare Airport when I'm in Chicago. I've tried to get in a couple times before, but on the first visit the place was packed - there was some fund-raising event going on one evening - and then I tried to get into the place on a Friday night where they had a luau going on that included dinner and a show. On a cool winter evening on a trip to Chicago recently, I was finally able to get in and see what the Tiki Terrace was all about.

The Zuziak brothers - Scott, Jim and Phil - learned the art of juggling as they were growing up in the far west suburbs of Chicago. Eventually, the brothers started to learn the art of Polynesian drum and dance, as well as the art of Samoan fire knife dancing. The brothers entered - and won - several fire knife competitions before they joined The Barefoot Hawaiian, a local Hawaiian-centric troupe that entertained at corporate parties and celebrations around the Chicagoland area.

The brothers went deep into the Hawaiian culture as they designed and built their own Hawaiian-style wooden tikis and even made their own volcanoes for the performances. They learned about Hawaiian foods and realized that there weren't a lot of places around the Chicago area that served Hawaiian food. They set out to bring the people of Chicagoland a taste of Polynesia.

The brothers were told by a local restaurateur that a Hawaiian-themed restaurant would be a horrible idea, but that only gave them more of an impetus to succeed. Designing and making most of the Polynesian decor for the restaurant in their sister company A Custom Productions, they opened the Tiki Terrace in the far northwestern suburb of Prospect Heights in November of 2005. Jim ran the kitchen, Scott was the business manager and Phil ran the bar.

In June of 2007, Jim Zuziak suffered a debilitating stroke. Jim was only 28 and in good shape when he was stricken and the prognosis for recovery was not good when he was first admitted to the hospital. Given only four days to live, the family prepared for his untimely passing. However, after three days in the hospital, Jim's condition stabilized and he began to show signs of improvement. He did survive, but he couldn't be involved with the restaurant any longer. The Zuziak's sister Kelly was drafted to work in the kitchen in Jim's absence.

The Zuziak family realized after a couple of years that their location was sort of detrimental to those in the city who would like to experience a little bit of Hawaii in the Chicago area. They found a new location in strip mall at the corner of E. Oakton St. and Mannheim Road in Des Plaines (see map) and reopened the new and larger Tiki Terrace in April of 2008. Jim is still involved in the Tiki Terrace while Scott Zuziak is running Lazy River Studio, a company that makes custom wooden signs.

The entrance to the Tiki Terrace doesn't give any indication that it's a Polynesian/Hawaiian-themed restaurant, but upon entering the restaurant you're immediately transported to the South Pacific.

The intricate woodwork, the thatch walls, the Japanese lanterns, and the tiki wood columns in the restaurants gave it an authentic Polynesian vibe. Two 12-foot high Easter Island Moai statues loom in the background of the stage area along one of the walls.

The bar area is just to the right as you walk in the door. It had a thatch room over the bar with bamboo accents behind the bar area. I thought about taking a seat at the bar, but it was pretty small and there was only one seat available.

Nearly every evening, the Tiki Terrace offers some sort of live music. On Friday and Saturday night, they have a luau dinner and show they call Echoes of Polynesia complete with hula dancers and chanting Moari warriors. Through the week, they have a revolving number of Hawaiian-style musicians that are based in the greater Chicagoland area. The evening I was there, the Tiki Cowboys were playing their style of island music and they were pretty good and fun to listen to. The Tiki Terrace has also hosted a number of slack-key guitar and ukulele musicians from Hawaii over the years.

I was greeted by a young lady who came out from behind the bar and offered me a booth across from the stage area. She dropped off a menu and asked if I would like something to drink. They had Kona Brewing Company products there and even though I love Big Wave Golden Ale, I decided to try their mai tai. It was called the Tiki Mai Tai and it was made with almond orgeat syrup, fruit juices and, of course, rum. It was sort of sweet in taste, but pretty good. However, when I looking through the menu I saw that they had something called the Original Mai Tai. I ordered one of those for my second drink and all I have to say is "Wow!" It was packed - and I mean PACKED - with rum. It was all I could do to finish that drink it was so full of liquor.

For food, the Tiki Terrace has some Hawaiian staples such as Kalua Pork and Loco Moco, but they also feature fresh seafood such as mahi mahi that is dusted with Asian bread crumbs, ahi tuna that is marinated in sesame oil and soy sauce, and coconut shrimp curry. They also have Korean Kalbi short beef ribs; a chicken breast marinated in a coconut cream sauce; and a beef, chicken or shrimp stir fry entree. They also had sandwiches, salads and a number of pupu's - the Hawaiian word for appetizers. Taro chips, Bora Bora egg rolls, and Kalua pork nachos were the more prominent items on the menu.

Now here is where the problems started. It turned out that the only person working the floor that night was the young lady who was also the bartender. It wasn't all that busy, but she had her hands full with making drinks, taking food orders, getting food to tables, etc., etc. I had fully finished my first mai tai and was wanting a second one - as well as wanting to order some food. It took her nearly 20 minutes to get back to me to take my food order.

I thought I'd start off with one of the appetizers to start out - the seared ahi poke. The ahi tuna is marinated, then seared and served with marinated sweet onions and tomatoes. I'd never had poke before that had been seared and I would have to say that it was more than seared. The tuna was a little dry on the outside and nearly fully cooked.

I had long finished my seared ahi poke and was having trouble finishing my second - and more potent - mai tai. I was considering getting the grilled mahi mahi tacos, but the young lady just never came back to check on me. After struggling to finish the second mai tai, I thought it would just be best to cut my losses and get out of there. She must have known, as well, as she just brought me my ticket and didn't ask if I wanted anything else.

Given the level of service - the lack of it, that is - that I experience that evening, I can't really give the Tiki Terrace any glowing reviews. The seared ahi poke was just all right in my book - I would have liked it better had it not been seared, I think. The mai tais were good - especially the rum-packed Original Mai Tai they have at the Tiki Terrace. I was sort of bummed that I wasn't able to try the mahi mahi fish tacos, but I was in the place for over an hour having just two drinks and the ahi tuna pupu. That was way too long to be in there and not have a full dinner. I'm hoping for the Tiki Terrace's sake that this evening was just an anomaly in terms of the level of service they provide in the place. I'm just not certain I want to try my luck that the service will be better if I go back at some point.

On my continuing quest to find good Italian eateries in the Harwood Heights area on the west side of Chicago, I went to a place that I'd had been by a handful of times - Cucina Biagio. The building is styled after an Italian villa and it's pretty tough to ignore as you drive down Lawrence Avenue. Here's the story behind Cecina Biagio and my meal that I had that evening.

Biagio Cirrincione grew up in Altavilla Milicia, a small town along the northern coast of Italy. One by one, members of his large family moved to the United States in the early 60's. By 1966, Biagio Cirrincione was the only member of his family not to be in the U.S. Along with his wife Giuseppina (Josephine) and their children, the Cirrincione's moved to Chicago in 1966 to be near other relatives. But hedging their bets, Cirrincione kept the family house and business in Sicily in case America didn't work out for them.

Biagio Cirrincione worked in a number of restaurants in the Chicago area learning the business and imparting his knowledge of blending ingredients for the best tasting Italian specialties. After six years, the Cirrincione family held a meeting and they voted to stay in the United States. Biagio Cirricione went back to Sicily to sell the family home and business, coming back to America shortly afterward to continue to work in the restaurant business.

In 1977, Biagio Cirrincione bought a Nancy's Pizza franchise and learned the way of making a stuffed pizza. A second Nancy's owned by the Cirrincione's opened in 1979. A dispute with Nancy's owner Rocco Palese led to the Cirrincione's breaking away from the Nancy's Pizza franchises and opening his own stuffed pizza restaurant called Biagio's. Biagio's eventually transformed into Suparossa and grew into three locations around the Chicagoland area. Today, under the Suparossa Hospitality Group, the Cirrincione family operates nine restaurants including Pete's Pizza, Legno and Cucina Biagio along with two banquet facilities.

Cucina Biagio is located on Lawrence Ave. just west of Harlem in the heart of the Italian neighborhood of Harwood Heights. (see map) It was around 6:30 when I pulled into the parking lot just to the west of the building. I went inside and was met by Boris who would eventually be my server. He showed me to a booth in the ornate dining room. It was still pretty early so only a handful of diners were in the restaurant. I ordered up a beer to have while I looked through the menu.

Traditional southern Italian and Sicilian specialties made up the bulk of the menu at Cucina Biagio. Pasta dishes, veal and chicken entrees, as well as seafood pasta offerings were available at Cucina Biagio. I was in the mood for something different that evening other than just pasta and meatballs in a meat sauce.

Coming out before the main entree was a small loaf of fresh baked bread that came with marinated roasted garlic, whole black olives and parmesan cheese. I smashed some of the roasted garlic on the bread slices and sprinkled some parmesan on top. It was absolutely killer in taste. I also got a house salad with fresh greens, sliced onions and cucumbers with tomato wedges, olives and julienne carrots topped with a house Italian dressing. This was a great start to the meal. By that time, I had finished my beer and had ordered a glass of the La Flor malbec wine from the Pulenta Estate Winery in Argentina to have with my dinner.

For dinner that evening, I decided to go with the chicken parmigiana. I had been looking at the veal marsala for a moment, but Boris - with a thick Eastern European accent - told me that their chicken parm was outstanding. It was a breaded chicken breast, pan-fried and then baked with a marinara sauce and a slathering of fresh mozzarella cheese across the top. The chicken parm sat on a bed of angel hair pasta.

My server was right - the chicken parm was outstanding. The breast was thick, but tender and juicy. The marinara was sweet and tangy, while the mozzarella cheese was fresh tasting. I was more than happy with what I got. I think I make a pretty mean chicken parmigiana at home, but this was excellent.

I felt everything about Cucina Biagio was outstanding - the chicken parm, the great bread with the marinated roasted garlic, the salad with the fresh greens and veggies, even the service was top-notch. The atmosphere was elegant and friendly. There's a number of items to choose from on the menu at Cucina Biagio and I will be back at some point to try either a pasta dish or a veal entree.

I was up in the northern suburbs of Chicago on my way to meet a new dealer early this year and I got a phone call from him. He said that he had to cancel our appointment - he was traveling out of the country in a couple of days and he found out the night before that his passport had expired. He needed to make arrangements in downtown Chicago to get a new passport and he wouldn't be available. I thought it was sort of a weird excuse, but I had to accept it. Faced with a void in my schedule for about 90 minutes, I decided to find someplace for breakfast. I did a quick search for a local place on my smart phone and found a restaurant by the name of Georgie V's. I punched in the address and went to Georgie V's in north suburban Northbrook.

Georgie V's is a typical Greek-family-owned restaurant, one of many similar restaurants you can find across the Chicagoland region. It has been in business since 1987 when George Vlahakis opened the doors to his restaurant located in a strip mall near the corner of Church St. and Shermer Road in Northbrook. (see map) George had worked in restaurants when he was growing up in his native Greece, but was pursuing a medical degree in the mid-80's. He was a week away from getting his degree in medicine when he abruptly quit to pursue his dream of owning his own restaurant. George opened his eponymous restaurant and never looked back.

George Vlahakis also helped his sons Peter and Ted get into the restaurant business as the family opened a restaurant not far from Georgie V's - Greek Feast. The family opened Greek Feast in 2011 and the emphasis is on Greek foods that George Vlahakis grew up with in Greece.

In 2015, George decided to retire and he ended up selling the restaurant to his friend and fellow Greek native Angelo Panagos. Panagos owned ice cream and gelato parlors in Athens before he and his family moved to the Chicago suburb of Glenview in 2012. Panagos got a job as the front of house manager at the Greek Islands in Lombard (click here to see the Road Tips entry on the Greek Islands) waiting for an opportunity to one day own his own place. When George Vlahakis approached Angelo about buying his place, Panagos jumped at the chance. Angelo Panagos, his wife Dina and their daughter Georgia took over Georgie V's in the summer of 2015.

It was a little after 9 a.m. when I got into Georgie V's. The place was about half-full so I was able to get in pretty easily. I took a seat in a booth long one of the walls in the restaurant. Dina Panagos is also a fifth-grade teacher at a local elementary school and framed art work from some of her students was hanging on the walls throughout the restaurant.

The menu at Georgie V's is heavily skewed toward breakfast with a few lunch items available, as well. It opens at 6:30 a.m. and closes around 2:30 p.m. daily. (7:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Sunday.) Pancakes, omelets, waffles, French toast, skillet dishes and crepes are the main items on the menu with a number of soups, salads, sandwiches and wraps available for lunch time diners. The dizzying amount of breakfast items made me stop two or three times and change my mind.

I first thought about getting the blueberry crepes that came with both fresh blueberries and blueberry compote, but then I saw the challah bread French toast. I can't remember where I've had challah French toast, but I remember that it was delicious. I thought about getting an omelet because they had 8 different types of meats that you could add, a like number of different types of cheese, and a dozen fresh veggie options to choose from.

But then I got to the eggs Benedict part of the menu and I saw something that tripped my trigger - the Corned Beef Benny. It was two poached eggs covered with a chipotle béarnaise sauce seated on top of a bed of house-made corned beef and English muffin slices. Hash browns came on the side with the Corned Beef Benny. This was interesting and delicious all at once. The béarnaise sauce had a bit of a smoky bite to it, but it wasn't overpowering to the taste of the eggs and the wonderful corned beef. And the portion of corned beef I got with the poached eggs was generous, as well. It wasn't too much food, nor was I still hungry after I finished the breakfast.

Georgie V's is one of those places that has been in business for so long that I'm certain that about anything they have for breakfast would be delicious. I truly liked my Corned Beef Benny eggs Benedict breakfast. The service I received was good, and the restaurant was comfortable and friendly. Georgie V's is a great little breakfast place in the north suburbs of Chicago and one that I was glad that I found.

One of the more hyped restaurant openings in the western suburbs of Chicago last fall was the new pizza restaurant from artisan baker and restaurateur Rich Labriola, Pizza Barra. I have eaten at both of his other restaurants - Labriola Bakery Cafe in Oak Brook and in downtown Chicago (click here to read about my visit to the one in Oak Brook) - and was impressed with the food on both visits. Since my visit earlier this summer, Labriola has changed the name of Pizza Barra to LaBarrasignifying a shift in their food philosophy to more of an Italian restaurant more so than just being pizza-centric.

Rich Labriola's background in the culinary arts began at his parents south side Chicago pizza joint when he was a young boy. He learned how to bake artisan breads at a young age and ended up studying under world-class bread makers to learn from the masters. Labriola found that taking the extra step or the extra minute to sift or add ingredients made all the difference in the world.

He opened his artisan bakery - Labriola Baking Company - in 1993 using specially designed baking ovens from Italy and using only the finest ingredients for his breads. Not long after he started his bakery, he was selling his breads to a number of top-end restaurants in Chicago. At its peak, Labriola Baking Company was supplying bread to over 700 restaurants in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin.

Labriola dove into the restaurant business when he opened the first of his two Labriola Bakery Cafe locations in the Oak Brook Promenade in west suburban Oak Brook in 2009. He sold his namesake bakery in 2013 and opened a second Labriola Bakery Cafe just off Michigan Ave. at E. Grand. While the Labriola Bakery Cafe in Oak Brook is an upscale cafe, the one in downtown Chicago features a more formal Italian menu in an even more upscale setting.

For his pizza restaurant, Labriola joined forces with Chris Macchia whose background included stints as the executive chef at The Florentine and Coco Pazzo, two highly acclaimed Italian restaurants in Chicago. The two came up the idea of having all different types of pizza from Chicago deep-dish style, to a thin-crust tavern style, to a coal oven-baked Neapolitan-style of pizza. Macchia helped Labriola fashion a menu that used locally grown and sourced items for the pizza they served. With both Labriola and Macchia well-known in the Chicago restaurant community, Pizza Barra opened to much fanfare in September of last year. Initial reviews were overly favorable. (Macchia has since gone on to become the executive chef at Nonnina which was the former Piccolo Sogno Due in Chicago's River North neighborhood.)

I had a late day meeting with one of my dealers in the Oak Brook area and decided to head over to Pizza LaBarra - which what it was still called at the time - to try one of their pizzas. It is located on the east side of the Oak Brook Promenade, literally a stone's throw from the Labriola Bakery Cafe off of Butterfield Road. (see map) Valet parking is available at peak times, but this was just after 6 p.m. when I was there and there was plenty of parking in the lot out front.

Walking into Pizza LaBarra, the pizza ovens are prominently on display behind the counter. There are two ovens - a gas oven for regular tavern-style or deep-dish pizza - and a coal-fired oven for the artisan Neapolitan pizzas the restaurant offers.

There is a nice outside patio dining area that was nearly full the evening that I was there. It overlooks a small man-made pond and is fully covered.

There are a couple of dining areas off to the main dining area. These are used for private parties or overflow from the main dining area in the middle of the restaurant. A divider separates the two rooms that can be individually closed off. A large mural of black and white photographs depicting the melding of Italian and American cultures ran the length of the two rooms.

The main dining room features a large rectangular bar with a window that looks into the kitchen. It features contemporary decor and a number of booths along the wall. Wooden floors and a wooden ceiling made the room a little loud and echo-y.

I ended up sitting at the bar and was greeted by Angel, a pleasant young guy who handed me a menu to look over. They had a number of beers on tap and I ended up getting a Goose Island Summertime, their seasonal summertime Kolsch.

The menu has changed since I was there initially - as I said they went more to an Italian-centric menu with pizza now sort of down on the menu. But I was there for the pizza that night and I got my standard Italian sausage, pepperoni and mushroom - a small thin-crust. I was tempted to get a deep-dish pizza given Rich Labriola's reputation of making great bread. I could almost imagine how good the deep-dish crust would be at Pizza LaBarra.

The pizza came out and was piping hot. The chunks of the sausage that Pizza LaBarra sources from DiRusso Italian Sausage Co. were sweet and spicy. The pepperoni slices were large and salty, and the sliced mushrooms were very fresh. The sauce they used on the pizzas at Pizza LaBarra was a little sweet, yet had a good tangy taste. The crust, however, was light, flaky and wonderful. The overall taste of the pizza with everything wrapped together was outstanding. There wasn't much I could quibble about with the taste of the pizza. A small was just enough for me. I was full after I finished the last of the "honey-pot" squares in the center of the tavern-cut pizza - the best pieces of any tavern-cut pizza.

I've encountered a lot of great pizza places in Chicago over the years, but I will say that the thin-crust, tavern-cut pizza that I got at Pizza LaBarra would give some of my favorites a run for their money. The hand-tossed crust was wonderful and the toppings were plentiful and full of flavor. Pizza LaBarra is a little more upscale than most of the pizza places I like in the Chicago area, but the service I received was fine, and the surroundings and decor of the restaurant was pleasant. I'm definitely going back to try one of Pizza LaBarra's deep-dish pizza sometime this fall.

After seeing a dealer in the far northwest suburbs of Chicago, it was early in the afternoon and I thought about stopping somewhere for lunch. I pulled over and did a quick look up for brew pubs in the area and I found a place that turned out to be not too far away, a place with four locations that I'd heard about before but had never been to before - Emmett's Brewing Company.

Hunt's Block was the name of one of the first large buildings built west of downtown Chicago. Also known as "Hunt's Folly" at the time because of it's size, the three story corner building was finished in 1871 and has housed everything from a dry goods store, a bank, professional offices, a ballroom and a billiard hall. It was a rundown relic when Timothy Burns, along with his sons, Matthew and Andrew, bought the building in 1998 and installed brewing tanks, eventually opening a brew pub the following year. The Burns family named the place after Timothy Burns' father Emmett, a man who they all revered in life.

The second Emmett's Brewing Company location opened in Palatine not long after, but that was closed in 2005. However, it reopened in 2006 and is still going today. Subsequent Emmett's Brewing Co. locations opened in Downers Grove and last year a new Emmett's location opened in downtown Wheaton in a restaurant that was simply known as The Bank.

The Palatine location of Emmett's Brewing Company is located in the downtown area in the midst of a number of other restaurants and bars in the area. (see map) I immediately recognized the area as one that I had visited previously on a couple of occasions, one to go have dinner at Schnell's Brauhaus across the railroad tracks. (Click here to see the Road Tips entry on Schnell's Brauhaus.) It was just after the noon rush when I got to Emmett's Brewing Company and the parking lot in front was sort of full, but I was able to find a spot near the front door that had just opened up.

There's two parts to Emmett's Brewing Company in Palatine - the dining room and the bar area. Doors from the bar area went out to a patio that was half-filled with diners on this beautiful day in Chicagoland. I thought about sitting at the bar for lunch, but I was told by the hostess that there was no service in the bar until later in the day.

I was seated in the dining room, a cozy and ornate area that looked more like someones suburban living room than a restaurant. It featured high-backed booths, a number of tables in smaller rooms, a fireplace and a number of prints and paintings on the wall. I was given a menu and I took a quick look through the beer list to see what I'd like to have for something to drink. I saw that they had something called World's End American Pale Ale that day and I signed up for that.

In the middle between the dining room and the bar area is a glass enclosed space behind the hostess stand that looks down into the brewery portion of Emmett's Brewing Company. They have won a number of awards including top-three finishes at prestigious beer festivals such as the Great American Beer Festival and the World Beer Cup. Also downstairs is a tap room that is used for private dining or events.

The menu at Emmett's Brewing Company is a pretty extensive and diverse offering. The appetizers went from pretty eclectic such as truffle fries with garlic aioli, sesame-seared ahi tuna, and portobello mushroom fries to basics such as fried calamari, chicken quesadillas, and an artichoke and spinach dip with pita chips. Soups, salads and small bites that could be shared such as blue cheese and bacon potato chips, barbecued pork pulled pork sliders, and a baked pretzel twist.

Emmett's also featured a number of sandwiches and burgers, and a number of seafood entrees as well as steaks, pork chops and chicken dishes. I was sort of burned out on burgers although their Boursin cheese burger with a portobello mushroom sounded pretty good. And their entrees just sounded like too much food for lunch, but I did give the braised pot roast with veggies and Yukon potatoes a quick look before moving on.

I ended up getting the Tavern Tacos with seared ahi tuna. (Steak, battered cod or roasted vegetables were also an option with the tacos.) The tacos were filled with shredded cabbage, pico de gallo and a spicy Southwest ranch dressing. I got a side with it and I wasn't too fired up about fries, sweet potato fries or potato chips, so my server - Cynthia, a pleasant lady who was very helpful throughout the meal - suggested I get the cole slaw. And I'm glad I did. The cole slaw had that perfect mix of sweet and tangy.

The seared ahi tuna tacos were also very good. The tuna wasn't fishy, the cabbage and the pico de gallo both were fresh and delicious. The spicy ranch dressing was a nice accompaniment to the seared tuna. The meal was light, it had a lot of different tastes going on, and it was perfect for lunch. The American pale ale was somewhat hoppy, but it was a great pairing for the fish tacos.

Now that I've tried Emmett's Brewing Company and I know the extensive menu they have, I can see going to one of the other locations - or going back to the one in Palatine - at some time. The fish tacos were very good, I was happy with the American pale ale that I had, the service was top notch and it was tough to beat the homey atmosphere at the Palatine Emmett's Brewing Co. There's a lot of good to very good brew pubs in the Chicago area and Emmett's is one of the better ones that I've encountered.

A place that I had been reading about in a list of good Italian beef restaurants around Chicago was Jay's Beef with three locations around the greater Chicago area. It turned out that the Schiller Park location for Jay's wasn't far from the hotel I was staying at near O'Hare Airport and one afternoon after a dealer visit I decided to go to that Jay's Beef location for a sandwich.

Justin Fortuna was a noted athlete in the Chicago area who ended up playing basketball for DePaul University in the late 40's and early 50's. But his first love was baseball, a sport that he played well past his 50th birthday after transitioning to softball. Fortuna was a member of a national championship 16" softball team from 1969 thru 1972. And when he wasn't playing softball, Fortuna was a basketball official and baseball umpire for over 30 years, culminating in 1996 when he was named to the Chicago Public League Coaches Hall of Fame for officials. (Fortuna was also inducted into the Chicago 16" Softball Hall of Fame in 2014.)

Justin Fortuna had a stint in the Army after graduating from DePaul, and coming back to Chicago after his tour of duty was over he became a clothing salesman. In 1958, Fortuna opened his own clothing store - Justin's Mens Wear - a place he ran for three years. After getting out of the clothing business, Fortuna sold aluminum siding for a number of years before changing vocational directions once again. This time he got into the restaurant business.

Pictured right - Justin Fortuna

Justin Fortuna's wife, Muriel, came from an Italian family that had their own secret recipe for Italian beef. Muriel's mother, Edith, and Edith's sister Margie came up with the family recipe in the 1940's and passed it along to other family members. Margie and her husband, Al, first owned an ice cream shop that they turned into an Italian beef sandwich shop. Justin Fortuna decided to get into the Italian beef business and he took over a small building in the village of Harwood Heights in Northwest Chicago that was reportedly owned by notorious Chicago mob boss Tony "Big Tuna" Accardo. Named after Justin and Muriel's oldest son, Jay's Drive-Inn opened its doors in 1976 in what Fortuna called a "shack". (The original location was demolished in 1994 and a new building was built in its place.)

In 1982, Fortuna opened the second Jay's - now called Jay's Beef - in Schiller Park, while a third location opened in Des Plaines in 1987. Justin Fortuna passed away in 2000 at the age of 72 and his son Jay carried on with the restaurants. Jay Fortuna opened a Chicago location on North Ave. in Wicker Park in 2007, but closed the Des Plaines location about five years ago. Jay Fortuna's brothers - Frank and John - and his sister, Ginny, currently help out with the restaurants.

The Schiller Park location for Jay's Beef is on W. Irving Park Ave. in the flight path of one of the runways from nearby O'Hare Airport. (see map) There's a small parking lot along the west side of the building. The interior of the place is small - it seats maybe a couple dozen people, max - and is counter service only. The menu is located on a small board next to the ordering area of the counter.

For my first visit to Jay's Beef, I had to try the beef sandwich. The Italian beef is cut thin and is very juicy from the gravy its simmered in. Red pepper flakes and spicy giardiniera topped the sandwich that was served on spongy Italian bread from the Gonnella Bakery in nearby Schaumburg. The sandwich was simply delicious. The roast beef was tender and flavorful with a zesty taste thanks to the pepper flakes and the giardiniera.

I also wanted to try one of their Chicago-style hot dogs. Like many other places in the city, the hot dog came with crispy fries. I got it with everything - chopped onions, neon-green sweet relish, tomato slices, a dill-pickle spear, sport peppers, yellow mustard and topped with celery salt. The Vienna Beef hot dog had the signature "snap" to each bite. It, too, was a very good Chicago hot dog.

I wasn't all that interesting in the fries since I had an Italian beef sandwich AND a hot dog to eat, but I did try a couple just for the hell of it. Those two turned into two more, then two more, etc., etc., because the French fries were very good - crispy on the outside, fluffy potato taste in the middle. I find most French fries are either limp and greasy, or they're frozen, then deep-fried where the life is cooked out of them. But the fries at Jay's Beef were fresh, crispy and flavorful.

With all the Italian beef places around Chicago, there's a huge debate as to which one is the best. I've found that most people like the ones they grew up with and many people in the Schiller Park and Harwood Heights areas think that Jay's Beef is the best. I thought both the Italian beef and the hot dog were very good and delicious. But the French fries were simply wonderful. Jay's Beef is a simple, no-frills place with good Chicago-style food at reasonable prices. And it's been that way for 40 years.

My wife and I just had an exhausting 8+ hour flight from Maui to Chicago getting into O'Hare International Airport around 5:30 a.m. It was exhausting in that we didn't get much sleep thanks to the obligatory screaming child on the flight. Usually, screaming kids will quiet down after an hour or so. But this kid was screaming for over half the flight. Couple that with the fact that when we left Maui it was sunny, humid and 84 degrees and when we got into Chicago it was cloudy, drizzly and 44 degrees. We needed to get something to eat before we drove back home that morning and we ended up stopping at a place in Oak Brook that I'd seen a few times in the past - Blueberry Hill Breakfast Cafe.

The Oak Brook Blueberry Hill is one of seven locations of the restaurant around the greater Chicagoland area found mainly on the south, southwest and far western suburbs. Each restaurant opens at 6 a.m. and closes at 3 p.m. daily. (The Oak Brook location stays open until 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.) The restaurants offer farm fresh breakfasts as well as soups, salads, sandwiches, wraps and burgers for lunch.

The Blueberry Hill Breakfast Cafe in Oak Brook is located in the Oak Brook Promenade shopping and entertainment center along Butterfield Road. (see map) It was around 7:30 when we got into the restaurant and there was a smattering of people in the place. We were seated in a comfy booth in the larger of the two dining rooms in the restaurant and given menus. Our server, Melissa, came over with some coffee which Cindy took, but I asked if they had espresso available. She said they did and I ordered a triple espresso just to get my groggy brain going on that somewhat dreary morning.

They had a little bit of everything for breakfast at Blueberry Hill - pancakes, waffles, omelets, French toast, skillets, as well as classic breakfasts like eggs Benedict, and steak and eggs, as well as a number of Mexican-influenced breakfasts. They also have fresh squeezed orange juice at Blueberry Hill and I ordered a large glass of that to go along with my espresso.

With "Blueberry" in the name, I automatically assumed that they'd have a number of breakfasts featuring blueberries. Anything with blueberries is my favorite for breakfast and while I thought about getting the blueberry waffles - a featured breakfast at Blueberry Hill - I ended up getting the blueberry crepes. Melissa asked me if I wanted the blueberries served plain or glazed. I didn't know what she was getting at with the "glazed" description - I thought they were covered with a powered sugar. But she said it was like a compote. I took the blueberries plain.

Cindy got the California skillet with scrambled egg whites. It featured fresh spinach, sun dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts and goat cheese on top of American fries. She had a choice between toast and pancakes and she got the toast. She was happy that she didn't get the pancakes as there was a lot of food in her skillet. She knew she wouldn't be able to eat the whole thing.

My crepes were light and tasty, filled with a slug of blueberries in the three crepes. A light dusting of powdered sugar were on top of the crepes. I was pretty hungry - we hadn't eaten since we left Maui - and I was able to make short work of the crepes. I got a side of thick cut bacon as a side with the crepes. It was a great breakfast.

Cindy loved her California skillet. She said the veggies were fresh and flavorful, and the potatoes were very good. But it was just a lot of food. She was able to eat just over half of the breakfast before she threw in the towel.

If you're in the south, southwest or west suburbs of Chicago and you're looking for breakfast, I recommend that you look no further than Blueberry Hill Breakfast Cafe. With seven locations, a full and interesting breakfast menu, a helpful and friendly wait staff, and a comfortable setting it's tough to beat a place like Blueberry Hill.

When I stay in Chicago near O'Hare International Airport, I'm doing my best to try all of the Italian restaurants that are located in Harwood Heights, a small community on Chicago's west side. I've hit a couple three so far and was impressed with all that I've had. My next restaurant on my list to try was a small family owned place located in a strip mall along Lawrence Ave. - DiMaggio Cafe. I went there on a recent trip to Chicago.

For over 30 years, the DiMaggio family has been serving up Italian food in Harwood Heights. Specialties are pasta dishes, chicken entrees, seafood dishes, thin-crust pizza and house-baked Italian treats. Today, the restaurant is run by Francesco (who also goes by Franco or Frank) DiMaggio, the son of the original founders of the restaurant.

DiMaggio Cafe is located west of the corner of Lawrence and Harlem Avenues in the heart of Harwood Heights. (see map) It's tucked back in on the north side of Lawrence in a strip mall that also featured an authentic Polish restaurant and a sushi bar.

Inside the restaurant, they did their very best to simulate a warm and cozy Italian restaurant complete with checkered table coverings, subdued lighting and a laid-back feel. I found it to be welcoming and very unpretentious.

There was a small bar area in front of the kitchen. Franco DiMaggio was seated at the bar talking in Italian to another man when I found a seat in the restaurant. They had a rack of wines available for take out along one of the walls.

As you come in the door, there is a bakery case full of Sicilian cookies, cannoli and other baked goods. I understand the restaurant does a brisk business with their baked goods, especially in the morning.

I was greeted by a young lady who would be my server that evening. I looked through the menu and found a number of Italian specialties including Chicken Vesuvio, grilled calimari, and a number of pasta dishes. DiMaggio Cafe also has a number of sandwiches including Italian panini sandwiches. And they are also well known for their Sicilian-style pizzas.

For my starter that evening, I got a house salad that was served with a house salad with a balsamic vinaigrette dressing. It came with a tomato wedge, sliced cucumber and sliced red onions. The greens were fresh and the balsamic vinaigrette had a thick consistency with a forward tart taste. I also got a glass of a Malbec wine to go along with my meal. It was a healthy pour with the wine going nearly all the way to the rim of the glass.

But the highlight was the fresh-baked bread that came with the salad. It was served with a bottle of DiMaggio Cafe's house-brand extra virgin olive oil and fresh parmesan cheese. The bread was soft and very flavorful on its own. Dipped in the olive oil with some parmesan cheese and black pepper, the taste of the bread was heightened even more. Thankfully, there was a lot of bread that they served me. But I had to watch it as I didn't want to get so full on bread that I couldn't enjoy my entree.

I ordered the meat ravioli - ground beef and pork tucked inside ravioli pillows - topped with a marinara sauce. And for good measure I got a couple meat balls to go along with it. It took a little time to get the meal, but I was told that they make everything from scratch at DiMaggio Cafe. The ravioli looked like they had just cut the pasta in the kitchen, filled them with the meat and then quickly boiled them. The marinara sauce had a great sweet tomato flavor that went great with the ravioli. The meat balls were a tad underwhelming for me. They were a little bland in their taste and had a lot of breading in them. Still, they were good in the marinara sauce.

Franco DiMaggio came over and asked in a very thick Italian accent how my meal was. I let him know that I was very happy with what I got. I told him that I was thinking about getting the chicken parmigiana, but I was happy with the meat ravioli. "We make great chicken parm," he said. "You try it your next time in."

And I probably will. DiMaggio Cafe was a great little find in my quest of trying the Italian restaurants in the Harwood Heights area. While it did take a little longer than I thought it should have taken to get my dinner to me, that's a sign that most of the items they serve are made from scratch. The meat-filled ravioli appeared to be made moments before it was served to me, the marinara sauce was wonderful, and even though I thought the meatballs were a little disappointing, they were still good in the ragu meat sauce. But the bread with the house-brand virgin olive oil was outstanding. I was happy with the service I received and the atmosphere was laid-back and friendly. I may have to go back to DiMaggio Cafe before I try some other Italian restaurants in the immediate area.

Frankfort, IL is a far-southern suburb of Chicago and named after the city of Frankfurt in Germany. German immigrants settled in the area in the 1840's, so there is a strong German heritage in the town. So, of course, there has to be a German restaurant in the area and on a visit earlier this year to see a dealer in downtown Frankfort, I passed by a large sign on S. LaGrange Road that read Chef Klaus' Bier Stube. I was hungry and after I called on the dealer in Frankfort, I made my way back to Chef Klaus' and try their German food.

You'd think a guy by the name of Klaus Ditschler would be born and raised in Germany, but that wasn't the case. In fact, Klaus Ditschler was born in the United States and the first time that he went to Germany was when he was stationed there with the U.S. Army in the late 50's. After getting out of the Army, he ended up back in Frankfort opening the first of what turned out to be a handful of German restaurants in the area.

Pictured left - Chef Klaus Ditschler

The original Chef Klaus' Bier Stube was located in the historic downtown area of Frankfort, it's huge beer garden a huge draw in the warmer months. Tragedy hit in 2001 when a devastating fire took out the building in which Chef Klaus' was housed. He had just opened a second restaurant in nearby Peotone, IL, but he wanted to reopen a restaurant in Frankfort. He was able to find a large space in the Frankfort Town Center on the north side of the town. Klaus Ditschler also opened Chef Klaus' Country Kitchen in the town of Mokena, north and west of Frankfort with his son, Michael, in charge of that location. There was also a Chef Klaus' steakhouse that was open for awhile in Frankfort.

Unfortunately, Klaus Ditschler passed away in 2012 at the age of 77 leaving his restaurants to Michael and his other son, Karl. Nothing changed in the Chef Klaus' Bier Stube kitchen as head chef Ernesto Luciano continued with the restaurant. He had worked side by side with Klaus Ditschler for over 35 years - Ernesto's brother, Savano, also worked for Ditschler for over 30 years. After the death of their father, the Ditschler's eventually closed the Peotone location in April of 2013 focusing on the Mokena and Frankfort Chef Klaus' restaurants.

You can't miss the sign along S. LaGrange Road touting Chef Klaus' Bier Stube. It's located on the east side of the strip mall that includes a couple of other restaurants and a grocery store located just north of U.S. Highway 30. (see map) There was plenty of parking in front of the restaurant.

From the front, it didn't look much like a German restaurant. It had a faux wooden front with a white picket fence in front of the building. But going inside, it looked like a German restaurant. An overly kitschy German restaurant filled with carved wooden clocks and artifacts, beer steins, and painted plates. On Friday and Saturday evenings, Chef Klaus' hosts a duo playing German polka music.

There was a nice bar area with an old walnut bar and flat screen televisions hung high above the back bar. They have a number of imported bottles as well as at least 7 different types of German beers on tap.

Hanging from the ceiling were deer-rack lighting fixtures, models of vintage planes and military jets, as well as a number of hunting and army rifles. It was some of the most peculiar decorations I've seen in any restaurant - even ones that are trying to be kitschy with their decor.

There were also a number of World War II memorabilia on display, including some toy soldiers and old weapons on display. I've read that at one point they used to have some Nazi Germany memorabilia on display, but I didn't see any of that on this visit. But, then again, my wife says I'm not very observant.

I was seated near the bar and given a menu. My server came over to greet me - well, greet is not the operative term here. She was rather surly with a gruff, "What do you want to drink?" I hadn't looked at the beer list yet and I said I'd just have water. She scurried off to get my water and it allowed me time to look over the beer menu. They had Spaten on tap and I asked her if I could get one of those when she brought my water to me. She sort of took a deep breath and asked if I wanted a small or a large. I ordered a large and she wordlessly turned away from me and bellowed at the bartender, "Spaten! Tall!" She brought it back to my table and sort of dropped it on the beer coaster, splashing some out of the glass. She turned and walked away without offering to clean up the spill.

My server didn't come back to my table for a good ten minutes after that giving me a chance to A) Look over the menu; and B) To realize that my Spaten was sort of flat tasting. I didn't have the heart - or the guts - to tell her that I thought it was flat. I just went ahead and drank the beer down without saying a word.

It's a full menu at Chef Klaus' - steaks, roast duck, chicken, seafood, ribs, and, of course, German specialties. They had Hungarian goulash, Kasseler Rippchen (cured and smoked pork chops), a sausage platter, and nearly a dozen of different types of pork schnitzel dishes - all of which could be made with veal instead of pork.

When my surly server finally came back to take my order, I got the Jagerschnitzel - a breaded sautéed pork cutlet topped with chopped bacon and imported mushrooms. She was much more pleasant in her demeanor and I asked her if I could get a tall Warsteiner this time around. "Coming right up," she said in a cheery voice.

Along with the main entree, I got a relish plate with a liver paté, carrot and celery sticks, three different types of bread including a dark pumpernickel bread that was very good, and a cup of a mushroom rice soup that was also very good and very hearty. They had a cinnamon honey butter along with regular whipped butter in a small bowl. There was a lot of stuff on the table long before she brought my jagerschnitzel out.

I didn't want to overeat the preamble to the meal and I'm glad I held back as much as I did. When she brought it to the table, my eyes must have gotten as big as saucers. This was a BIG plate of jagerschnitzel topped with a brown sauce, the chopped bacon and the sliced sautéed mushrooms. I got a choice of two sides with the jagerschnitzel and I got the potato dumpling in a gravy, and red cabbage. There was little to no chance that I'd be able to eat all of this meal.

But I made a pretty good dent in it. It was somewhat different in taste from other jagerschnitzel dishes that I've had in the past. I wish I knew my spices and herbs better, but there was some taste in the gravy that was pronounced and very distinct. I wasn't quite certain what it was, but I liked it. The pork cutlets were tender and had a good flavor above and beyond the taste of the gravy. The chopped bacon and sliced mushrooms only enhanced the overall taste of the jagerschnitzel. The only regret I had was that it was too much food and I couldn't take the leftovers because I was traveling.

By the time I was ready to leave, my server - who was cold, gruff and testy when I first came in - turned her attitude 180 degrees and turned out to be a nice person. And it turned out to be a pretty good meal at Chef Klaus' Bier Stube. And it was a lot of food at a pretty good price. It was too bad that I couldn't finish all of the meal - everything from the bread, the soup, the schnitzel, even the potato dumpling and the red cabbage (the two bites I had of each) were all very good. Chef Klaus' was a great find and the big sign out front helped steer me in.

I get in food funks when I'm on the road and I had been on the road a lot up to this one evening when I was in the Chicago area. Staying out by O'Hare, I've pretty much hit all of the restaurants in the area and was thinking about trying something new. But I wasn't really certain what I was hungry for. I got in the car and took off toward Des Plaines trying to see if anything would jump out at me for dinner that evening. Nothing that I saw as I was driving around piqued my interest, so I thought about going to a sushi place that was about 3 miles away. I punched in the address in my GPS and started to head that way. At a stop light along Miner St. in Des Plaines, I happened to look over and spotted a sushi place - Dotombori. It was a small place and I thought, "Hmmm... I was going to get sushi. Sushi is right there. And I haven't been to the place before." I did some maneuvering around and made my way back to have sushi at Dotombori.

Dōtonbori is the name of a highly popular tourist destination in Osaka, Japan. (Sometimes the "n" is transposed with an "m" to make it Dotombori.) It features shops, restaurants and entertainment venues that makes it one of the more lively destinations in Japan. When Jay and Suzy Park opened their little sushi place in 2010 in what was an old Subway restaurant, they decided to name it after the lively section of Osaka and bring to Des Plaines authentic Kansai regional foods from Japan.

I was able to maneuver around the streets of Des Plaines to end up parking on Miner Street just past the corner of Pearson Street where Dotombori stands. (See map) I went in and found a seat at the sushi bar. The interior of Dotombori was stylish, sort of a contemporary Asian decor that featured a number of booths along the wall. It was tough to see that this place was once a Subway.

I was given a menu and they had a number of specialty rolls available, as well as a number of cooked entrees made in the kitchen. But I was there for sushi and I got a large Asahi beer to enjoy while I looked through the sushi menu.

Sitting at the sushi bar, you get to see some interesting things happen. It so happened that someone ordered a specialty roll that was wrapped into aluminum foil, then was drenched in saké and set on fire. They were pretty theatrical in the preparation of the specialty roll. I got a good chuckle out of it.

They had a number of different types of tuna sushi to choose from at Dotombori. I ended up getting a spicy tuna roll, some salmon nigiri and a couple pieces each of regular tuna, chi-toro tuna and a peppered tuna nigiri. The spicy tuna roll had hot chopped jalapeño peppers rolled in with the tuna - usually a sushi joint will use a spicy sauce on the roll to give it the spicy taste. But the chopped jalapeños were an interesting - and tasty - twist to the spicy tuna roll.

The salmon was very good, but all three of the tuna nigiri sushi were delectable. The peppered tuna was the most interesting - it looked a little funky compared to the other pieces of sushi, but it had a nice deep black pepper taste with a hint of a spicy bite on the back end of the flavor. The fatty chi-toro sushi had a wonderful taste and a good consistency, and the regular tuna was flavorful and fresh.

Had I not been sitting at the light at Miner and Pearson in Des Plaines one evening and happened to look over to my left, I might not have found Dotombori. And I'm glad I did. It was a pleasant dining experience, the service was fine, the atmosphere was comfortable, yet fun, and the sushi I had was delicious. Dotombori is not a big place, but I didn't feel like I was crowded at all. This was a wonderful dining experience for me and now that I know that Dotombori is where it is, I'll be back when I'm staying near the airport and looking for a sushi fix.

Always on the lookout for a good Italian beef sandwich, I've been trying to find places in and around Chicago that serve up one of the iconic sandwiches. I read about a place that started out in Joliet, but now has a second location in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood - Johnny's Beef and Gyro's. (This is not to be confused with Johnnie's Beef in Elmwood Park, IL.) On a trip toward Indiana down Interstate 80, I stopped off at Johnny's to try one of their Italian beef sandwiches.

Johnny's is co-owned by brothers Johnny and Nick Anastopoulos - Johnny is actually six years younger than big brother Nick. The Joliet location has been open for a number of years and the brothers opened their second location on N. Lincoln Ave. in Chicago in 2013. Both locations continue to do stellar business with sandwiches, gyros and hot dogs. But they're getting well known for their burgers, including the Big Daddy burger that features a double burger topped with cheese, gyro meat and a cucumber sauce. They have a Big Daddy challenge where a customer must eat what amounts to two Big Daddy's (four burger patties, double the gyro meat), plus an order of chili cheese fries and a large glass of Italian ice in under 30 minutes. Only a handful of people have been able to complete the challenge.

I got off I-80 at the Houbelt Road exit and went north about a mile. In a strip mall caddy-cornered kitty-cornered from the Joliet Regional Airport is a strip mall. In the corner of the strip mall, there was Johnny's Beef and Gyros. (see map).

It's not a large place, it seats probably around 50 people. In warmer months, they have an outdoor patio to the side that would nearly double the seating capacity. The menu is above the counter and that's where you place your order. I ordered up an Italian beef sandwich with mozzarella, giardiniera and sweet peppers. I almost got a hot dog to go along with it - I love Chicago-style hot dogs - but I ended up just getting the sandwich on its own.

And that was a probably a good thing. It was a big sandwich. The Italian bread was probably 8 inches in length and it was cut deep and piled high with sliced Italian beef that was covered in shredded mozzarella cheese and pickled sweet pepper slices. Liberal amounts of spicy giardiniera topped off the sandwich. The bread was fluffy and chewy and held together very well with all that was on the sandwich. The beef was moist and tender, and seasoned very well. With all the different taste sensations going on with each bite, I couldn't help but go, "Mmmmm..." a couple of times. This was a very good Italian beef sandwich.

Sometimes I get a hankering for a good Italian beef sandwich when I'm traveling on the south side of Chicago to or from Indiana on Interstate 80. Portillo's is usually my go-to, but there aren't really any locations that are close to the interstate. With Johnny's only about a mile north of Interstate 80 (and less than a mile east of Interstate 55), it's the perfect stop to grab a very good and tasty if you're driving by. I enjoyed the Italian beef sandwich immensely and I would say that Johnny's Beef can certainly hold their own against many of the more established and famous Italian beef places in the Chicago area.

There seems to be a large Italian population on the far west side of Chicago, not far from O'Hare Airport. Most of the Italians in the area live in Harwood Heights, a small community just west of Chicago and sort of south and east of O'Hare. It turns out there are a lot of Italian restaurants concentrated in the area around Lawrence and Harlem, and I decided to try one that had been around since the early 70's, but had recently gone through a name change - RoccoVino's.

Vince Loiacono was born in Sicily to an American father and a Sicilian mother. One of four siblings, Loiacono had wanted to come to the U.S., but couldn't leave Sicily until his 18th birthday. Since he was under 21, his trip to the U.S. was sponsored by an Italian-American group and he ended up in the Chicago area. And as his father was an American, Loiacono was also an American citizen by birth. He then entered the U.S. Army and became a paratrooper in the 173rd Airborne Division in the early 60's.

Loiacono decided to open a restaurant in the Harwood Heights area of Chicago in the early 70's. He contacted his mother and grandmother back in Sicily to get family recipes. He also sought the help of his Italian-American sponsor, Josephine SanFilippo, for other Italian recipes. Once he had the recipes in hand, he opened Vince's on Harlem in 1973 in a small building on the west side of Harlem. The restaurant moved to its present day location across the street in the 80's into the Holiday Plaza strip mall. (see map)

In 1981, two young Italian immigrants who had settled with their families in nearby Norridge - Savino "Nuccio" D'Argento and Rocco DeFrenza (pictured right) - went to work at Vince's. Both started out as dishwashers and pizza makers, eventually working their way up the ladder at Vince's to waiting tables, managing the kitchen, and as front of house hosts.

In 1989, D'Argento got a side job working for Sbarro, the national chain of pizza by the slice eateries that are found in malls, airports and other high traffic areas. D'Argento was a regional manager for Sbarro and even got DeFrenza a job working for the company. But they still kept their other jobs at Vince's hoping for a chance to open their own place at some point.

That happened in 2001 when Vince Loiacono - who owned other restaurants by that time - came to the two friends and asked if they would be interested in buying him out of his Vince's location. The two were already working on a restaurant concept, but they couldn't say no to the deal Loiacono offered them. (Today, Loiacono owns Vince's the Pizza People, a family-friendly pizza and wings joint in the far northwest suburb of Pingree Grove.)

D'Argento and DeFrenza decided to go ahead with their own Italian restaurant concept - RoccoVino's Express - and opened in Elk Grove Village in 2003. Their little place was sort of a cross between Sbarro and Vince's - a place where people who worked or lived in the area could grab something quick on the go. Their second RoccoVino's location opened in far western suburban Carol Stream and featured a traditional sit-down restaurant with old world Italian favorites and pizza. They soon opened another location in Orland Park on the far south side of the Chicagoland area, and eventually turned the RoccoVino's Express into a straight RoccoVino's sit-down location in Elk Grove Village.

The two realized that Vince's on Harlem was starting to show its age. In early 2015, they decided to shut down Vince's and give it a much needed face-lift. After spending over $100,000 in improvements and updates to the place, they reopened in November of last year as RoccoVino's. They also updated the food selection, but made sure that any of the old Vince's favorite dishes could be whipped up for the regulars, some of whom had been coming to Vince's for over 30 years.

It was about a 10 minute drive from my hotel to RoccoVino's on a cool and misty evening in Chicago. I found it in the corner of the strip mall that also houses an Office Max. There seemed to be a lot of cars in the parking lot, but I was able to find a slot not far from the front door.

I found out why there were so many cars - there was a group of older people having what appeared to be a club meeting in a room off to the side of the dining room/bar area. The dining room/bar area had a number of tables open and I was seated at a four-seater in the middle of the room. I was given a menu and not long after that a young lady by the name of Stephanie came over to take drink order.

The bar featured a full wine list and a good selection of beers to choose from. I didn't think I wanted any wine that evening, so I ordered up a Goose Island IPA. A basket of bread with a bottle of extra virgin olive oil and parmesan cheese was dropped off at the table. The bread was soft, warm and very fresh. I'm guessing they baked it on-site as it was very good.

The menu featured a vast array of old world Italian specialties - pasta, steaks, seafood, thin and thick pizzas, a number of salads and appetizers, and classic Italian dishes such as chicken (or veal) parmigiana, stuffed egg plant, or chicken, veal or pork Vesuvio. Every thing is made from scratch in the kitchen, they have only one microwave in the kitchen and it's used very little. This was the place to go if you were hungry for Italian food, but didn't know exactly what to get.

I've been on kind of a meat-filled ravioli kick over the past few months - my wife doesn't care for ravioli too much so I don't make it at home. But on the road, I like to have some ravioli, maybe with a marinara or bolognese sauce with a couple meatballs to go along with it. When I ordered the ravioli from Stephanie that evening, I was in a quandary as to get either the marinara or the bolognese sauce. She said, "Do yourself a favor. Get the tomato basil sauce. It's my favorite." So, I did just that.

For a starter, I got my choice of soup or salad and I went with the salad. I had asked Stephanie if they had a house-made Italian dressing and she said, "Get the sweet vinaigrette." She didn't steer me wrong. The vinaigrette had a wonderful flavor with the fresh greens and veggies that were mixed in the salad. I didn't want to over-stuff myself on the wonderful bread, but I couldn't help but sop up some of the vinaigrette when I got toward the end of my salad.

The ravioli featured large pillows of ground meat filled pasta with a healthy amount of the tomato basil sauce. Two smaller meat balls came on the side. From the first bite, I knew exactly what Stephanie was talking about with the sauce. It had a nice sweet taste with a hint of Italian basil mixed in. The ravioli was generously filled with meat and along with the sauce it was very tasty. The meat balls were mixture of pork, veal and beef and were mixed with herbs and spices. They, too, were very good. The amount of food that I had was just perfect - I was full enough by the time I finished the ravioli and meatballs and had a little bit of sauce left to dip some of the bread into.

I liked everything about my visit to RoccoVino's. The service was excellent, the place was cozy and inviting, and the food was superb. They have quite a selection of Italian specialties on the menu at RoccoVino's and I'm guessing I could go there a dozen times and get something different each time. This was a great find and it will definitely be in the rotation of Italian restaurants that I go to in the Chicago area.

I met one of my Chicago-area dealers at the new location of his store in the far western suburbs one evening. He and his wife were showing me their new building, which is actually an old building where the foundation dates back to the late 1800's and was rebuilt after a devastating fire in the early 1900's. We decided to go out for dinner that evening and I asked them where they'd like to go. My dealer didn't hesitate - "You like sushi, right?" Oh, of course! He suggested we go to a place that has suddenly become their favorite sushi place in the area, Shakou Sushi in downtown St. Charles.

It turns out that the Shakou Sushi in St. Charles is the second of now three similar sushi restaurants in the north and west Chicago suburbs. A small group of people who lived in the far northern Chicago suburb of Libertyville - Ed Hartigan, Aleks Dupor and his wife, Chrissy, and Adam Garvanian - partnered up to open the first Shakou in 2013. Aleks Dupor and Garvanian both had extensive histories in the restaurant business and had been friends for over 20 years before going in together - along with Dupor's wife, Chrissy - and coaxing their friend Hartigan out of the investment banking business to start the first Shakou in downtown Libertyville in March of 2013.

The group was able to convince long-time sushi chef Sang Choi to run the kitchen at Shakou Sushi. Choi previously worked at a number of upscale Chicago-area sushi places such as BluFish, Blue Ginger and Starfish. The Libertyville location for Shakou Sushi was an immediate hit and in a little over a year after opening it was named one of the Top 100 Hottest Restaurants in America by OpenTable.com.

The group opened the second Shakou Sushi in downtown St. Charles - mainly because it reminded them of downtown Libertyville - in April of 2015, while a third Shakou Sushi opened up in the up-and-coming community of Barrington on the far northwest side of Chicagoland in October of 2015.

I followed my dealer and his wife from their new store location to downtown St. Charles. Shakou Sushi is located on W. Main (Illinois Highway 64 or North Ave. from Chicago) in St. Charles. They said that parking is sometimes tough to find on the street in front of the place, so we parked in a public lot a block north of the restaurant. It turned out that we both could have found a place to park on Main St. in front of Shakou that particular evening. (see map)

The interior of Shakou Sushi in St. Charles is stunning. The lighting under both the regular bar and the sushi bar in the back had an elegant purple hue. The fixtures - lighting and furniture - were modern in their design. A beautiful chandelier hung from the center of the dining room that was separated from the bar by a short wall. There was an upstairs to the place - it was very nice, my dealer told me as they had eaten up there before. Hanging from the ceiling next to the stairs that led to the upstairs was a banner displaying the Japanese character for Shakou (which means "social life" in Japanese).

We took a seat in a high-backed leather booth along the wall. The wall had an interesting texture to it. At first glance, it looked like it was made out of metal. But upon touching it, we found it to be sort of a pre-formed dry wall wave design that was painted with a high gloss gold color. My dealer said, "Yeah, every time we come in here I look at that wall and think of how cool that would be in a home."

He was telling me a little bit about the building. He thought at one time that it used to be a liquor store, but it turns out that the building has housed a little bit of everything since it was originally built back in the 50's. "This had two levels because it's sort of built on a hill," he told me. "They had to spend a lot of money to take the higher level out and make the ground floor all on one level. But what they did in here was absolutely remarkable." I couldn't agree more. The space was very elegant, urbane and sleek, but not pretentious in the least.

Our server for the evening, Christina - a pleasant young woman - came over to greet us and take our drink order as we looked through the menu. My dealer and his wife were on a 30 day cleansing diet, so alcohol wasn't part of the diet. I've had meals with them before and they do like their adult beverages, but not that evening. I was on no sort of cleansing diet and I ordered an Asahi beer. Christina came back a moment later apologizing that they were out of Asahi. "We had a big weekend," she explained. "Our Asahi doesn't get replenished until tomorrow." I had to settle for a Kirin instead.

We went big on sushi that evening. My dealer and his wife had never had otoro before. I explained to them the different grades of fatty tuna - otoro being the highest fat content in tuna making it the most delectable of the sushi tuna cuts. It's also a quite different consistency than regular tuna. Otoro has a more of a mushy consistency and that sort of took my dealer and his wife by surprise. I don't think they cared much for the nigiri toro all that much. That was fine with me as it meant I could have more of the fatty tuna.

We also got some Scottish smoked salmon nigiri sushi. Now, I've had smoked salmon in many sushi places over the years but the stuff they served at Shakou was outstanding. It literally melted in your mouth and the overall taste was just excellent. Quite frankly, I would have easily traded the otoro - even as good as it was - for the Scottish smoked salmon.

My dealer and his wife are big on specialty rolls. They normally don't do sushi as much as they do the rolls. We ordered up three different tuna rolls - the Flaming Hamachi consisted of spicy tuna and cucumber topped with fresh yellow tail, jalapeño, tobiko (flying fish roe) and a citrus-based ponzu sauce; the Rainbow roll was spicy tuna with cucumber topped with assorted fish filets and kaiware sprouts (I joked that the assorted fish was probably what they were trying to move that evening); and the Urban Heat specialty roll had - once again - spicy tuna (see a pattern here?) with jalapeño, a spicy mayo sauce, avocado and tempura crunch all wrapped in soy bean paper, topped with a thick sweet unagi soy sauce. Now THAT was the spiciest of all the rolls! But they were all so flavorful with a lot of taste sensations going on with each bite. We couldn't finish all that we had and I let them take what we had left over home for their kids. My dealer's wife said that they had a growing boy who was at the age where he could have a big meal for dinner and then want to eat an hour later. "He'll love the sushi rolls for his dessert," she said as she boxed up the remaining pieces on the table.

I love sushi and I have to say that the nigiri sushi and specialty rolls I had at Shakou Sushi were simply outstanding. The contemporary design in the restaurant was stylish and cosmopolitan without being pompous and flamboyant. The service we received from Christina that evening was prompt and professional. I can't think of anything that I can even complain about other than them being out of Asahi that evening. But that was far from a deal killer. Shakou Sushi offered one of the more memorable sushi experiences I've encountered in all my travels. (Photo courtesy Fox Valley Magazine)

One evening, a buddy of mine from Chicago was on social media and he was at a place in suburban Des Plaines called the Tap House Grill. I saw him a couple weeks later and I asked him about the place. He told me, "They have a great beer selection and some good food." The Tap House Grill is not far from the hotel I like to stay at near O'Hare Airport, so one evening I decided to find the place for dinner.

It turns out that there are seven Tap House Grill locations around the Chicagoland area. I was sort of stunned to find that out because the first one opened in far western suburban St. Charles nearly 10 years ago. I had not been familiar with the restaurants before this visit. The concept of Tap House Grill restaurants was hatched in 2005 by two members of Chicago-area management for the Bar Louie chain of bistro/restaurants.

Scott Ward and Mark Zych both had significant backgrounds in the restaurant business - Ward had started out in the fast food business after graduating from Prairie State College eventually going to work for Ala Carte Entertainment, a Chicago-area restaurant group that oversaw the operations of the famous Snuggery restaurants, as well as Moretti's (click here to see the Road Tips entry on Moretti's).

Zych had started out his restaurant career at Lone Star Steakhouse before moving on to a number of positions at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. eventually becoming the overall General Manager for all Bubba Gump locations. Zych and Ward got to know each other at Bar Louie when Ward was the Chief Operating Officer and Ward was a district manager for the Chicago area Bar Louie locations.

Ward saw that the craft beer revolution had taken hold at Bar Louie when they began to put in multiple taps in many of their locations. Fresh, made-from-scratch foods were also gaining a foothold in many restaurants concepts. Ward and Zych envisioned a "gastro-pub" style of restaurant that had a focus on fresh, made-from scratch foods served along side interesting local craft beers. The first Tap House Grill location opened in far western suburban St. Charles in November of 2006. Ward and Zych have begun to franchise the Tap House Grill concept and last year they were joined by Tim Heavey - a former co-worker of Ward's a number of years ago - to become the Director of Operations with the responsibility of opening franchisee Tap House Grill locations.

The Tap House Grill in Des Plaines is located on Market Street, part of the Metropolitan Square entertainment/shopping and professional office complex. (see map) This location opened in late 2013 in a space that was formerly a Cheeseburger in Paradise that had closed a couple of years earlier. One of the problems that has plagued Metropolitan Square since it opened about nine years ago is visibility. The Tap House Grill is not visible from S. River Road as I had passed by it numerous times over the past couple of years, but had no idea that it was there.

The Des Plaines Tap House Grill is spacious with a large bar that curves around the center of the place. A number of high top tables were in the center with booths off to the side. You could call the Tap House Grill an upscale sports bar as they had a number of flat screen televisions hung throughout the place. It just so happened that it was Trivia Night at Tap House Grill and there were a number of people playing along that evening.

I took an open seat at the bar next to a group of people - three guys and two women - playing trivia. They have a number of beers on tap and in bottles at Tap House Grill. I saw that they had one of my favorite beers on tap - the Sculpin IPA from Ballast Point in San Diego. I ordered one from the bartender Chris who had a heavy Chicago accent when he asked me what I wanted to drink when he dropped off a menu.

At first glance, the food served at the Tap House Grill is your usual bar food - burgers, appetizers, shareable plates, salads, sandwiches and tacos. But looking a little more deeply into what they had told me that this was a different place. Appetizers included a double-decked Southwestern chicken quesadilla, chicken fingers that are battered in a Samuel Adams beer-base, and something called drunken shrimp in a concoction of jerk seasoning, thyme, and pale ale beer, then broiled.

They called their sandwiches "two-handed" for as big as they were. They had pressed ciabatta sandwiches, chicken wraps, a one-pound BLT sandwich, and a signature root beer-braised beef and gouda sandwich. Burgers included a Kobe beef burger, a blue cheese/bacon/mushroom burger, and a stout-glazed burger patty topped with Merkt's cheddar cheese. Entrees included a barbecue platter with pulled pork, a barbecued pork shank and barbecued chicken; a braised-beef ravioli dish; and a linguine shrimp dish with grilled shrimp in linguine tossed with chopped tomatoes, garlic, basil and oil, and topped with a red pomodoro sauce and Parmesan cheese.

But the tacos part of the menu caught my eye right off the bat. Even though I looked around the menu, I kept coming back to the tacos. I ordered the blackened tilapia tacos. The three soft-shelled tacos were filled with grilled, blackened tilapia, and topped with lime-marinated cabbage. A chipotle-infused ranch dressing came on the side, as well as black beans, rice and avocado slices. With everything mixed in the tacos, the taste was very good. I'm a sucker for good fish tacos and these were excellent, indeed. They were just exactly what I needed that particular evening - nothing heavy, but still filling enough.

While I was enjoying the tacos, the group at the bar to my left were stuck on a trivia question - I can't remember what it was - and I casually leaned to the guy to my immediate left and gave him the answer I thought it was. He told the group, "Hey, this guy thinks it's this!" And they turned that answer in and it was correct. Moments later they were stuck on another question and I gave him another answer that I believed was the right one. And that was correct, as well! Suddenly, others in the group were saying, "Hey, man! You want to join us?"

I thanked them, but said no. I had finished my tacos by that time, was almost done with my second Sculpin IPA and was ready to get to the hotel. But right before I left, another question came up - "Which government agency oversees the United States Secret Service?" They were immediately discussing whether it was the Department of Justice or the Treasury Department. I said to the guy, "I think it's the Department of Homeland Security, but I may be wrong on that." I think they went with the Treasury Department.

As I was getting up to leave, the trivia night M.C. said, "The answer is the Department of Homeland Security!" The guy next to me yelled, "Hey, that's what this guy said!" As I was leaving the group was trying to get me to stay and play. "You're our best player," one of the ladies said. "You can't leave now!" I laughed over that. My visit to the Tap House Grill was fun. Interacting with friendly people seated at and standing behind the bar was a nice diversion that particular evening. The blackened tilapia tacos with everything added on to them were very good, and I was very impressed with the beer selection they offered. It appears the menu at Tap House Grill has a little bit of everything for everyone, but it's definitely a step - or two - above you're regular bar-type of food. I enjoyed every aspect of my first visit to a Tap House Grill.

I've driven by a new place on Touhy Ave. in the North Chicago suburb of Skokie a couple three times over the past year by the name of M Burger. The metal framed building was sort of intriguing to me, but the clincher was the place's name. One time on a recent trip into Chicago, I had passed it and decided to go back and see what it was all about.

It turns out that M Burger is part of the uber-conglomerate of Chicago area restaurants, the Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises (LEYE) group. Started in 1971 by Rich Melman, Lettuce Entertain You has a firm hold on the restaurant landscape in the Chicago area. Scott Barton and Randy Brand were LEYE managing partners in charge of restaurants such as Osteria Via Strato and Nacional 27. When award winning chef and managing partner Rick Tramonto left the highly acclaimed Tru in 2010, Barton and Brand took over management of that location for Lettuce Entertain You. The highly sought after chef's table in Tru was no longer being used, so Barton and Brand turned the space - along with an old pastry kitchen - into the first M Burger later that year.

From the start, M Burger was designed to be spartan in decor offering customers a quick place to grab a burger without a lot of atmosphere or frills. M Burger sources their beef from Buedel Fine Meats, a popular meat purveyor located in south suburban Bridgeview. Their milk and cream for their delicious milk shakes and ice cream comes from Fox Valley Farms, a specialty dairy in far-west suburban Aurora. Today, there are six M Burger locations around the Chicago area - four downtown, one in the Chicago Premium Outlets mall in Aurora, and the one I went to in Skokie.

The M Burger in Skokie was opened in 2014, the fourth one of the six that are now open. It's is located on W. Touhy Ave. about 3/4's of a mile off the Edens Expressway. (see map) It's a little confusing to get into the place - you have to turn into the entrance of the Wal Mart parking lot at the light in front of M Burger, then turn left to get into their parking lot. The M Burger features a drive-thru lane and the building, itself, isn't all that big.

The drill at M Burger is that you order at the counter and they'll either bring your food out to you, or call your name if it's busy. The menu is very basic - they have a hamburger, cheeseburger, an M burger with bacon, cheese, and a mayo-based sauce, or a Hurt burger topped with pepper jack cheese and a spicy barbecue sauce. All burgers come as singles, but for a dollar more you can get double patties. They also feature health-conscious items such as a ground turkey burger, something called a Chicken Betty that is a grilled chicken breast with avocado, tomato and pepper jack cheese, or a vegetarian sandwich that is called the Nurse Betty without the chicken breast.

Dining in at M Burger is not a spectacular option. The "L"-shaped dining room is narrow with double and single booths. Garage doors open in warmer months to a narrow outdoor eating area. No, it's pretty utilitarian as far as the decor goes with M Burger.

The guy who took my order at the counter brought out my burger. The burger was wrapped in light wax paper and came on a plastic tray with no plate or silverware. Once again, it was relatively no frills.

I ordered the M burger with everything - that included the bacon, American cheese, and mayo sauce, as well as a tomato slice with a thick lettuce leaf. The burger patties are flat-grilled and the bun is toasted. The burger patties aren't all that large, but they were thick making this a good sized burger.

The burger was actually very tasty. The beef patties were cooked to a medium temperature with a bit of pink in the middle. They were juicy and tasted great. The bun held together very well given all that was going on with the juicy burger and the sauce. The tomato was fresh, as was the lettuce. The cheese and the bacon were a great accompaniment to the overall taste of the burger. But it was messy - it was, at least, a five napkin burger.

M burger gets a "thumbs up" from me in regard to the taste and quality of the burger. If you're looking to get a beer with the burger, well, you can't. Want specialty toppings like roasted peppers, jalapenos, or garlic aioli? Nope, not gonna get it. Want to relax on comfortable seating catching up with friends? You're going to be disappointed. M Burger's concept is to get you in, have a very good burger, and send you on your way. And if you understand that going in - as I learned on my visit - it will make the whole M Burger experience more enjoyable for you.

I have a dealer in the far western suburbs of Chicago and we had been missing each other on a couple previous trips I had made into the area. We made a point to get together for dinner some evening and he suggested getting together at a place that wasn't far from his home. The place - Stone Eagle Tavern - was one that I've been wanting to try for quite sometime. On a weekday evening, we met up at Stone Eagle Tavern in the Chicago suburb of Hoffman Estates.

Jimmy Vitale was a native of Rockford, IL who in his early 20's was a manager at the famous Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island off the upper peninsula of Michigan. He moved back to Rockford in 1975 and opened his first restaurant - the wildly popular Jungle Jim's Oyster Bar - one of the first Cajun restaurants in the Midwest. In addition to a handful of other restaurants that he ran over the years, Vitale also owned the popular Cliffbreakers Hotel and Restaurant in Rockford until he sold the place in 2006. He was lured out of retirement to be the G.M. of the hotel and restaurant two years later, but was looking to do something more along the lines of another Jungle Jim's Oyster Bar concept.

In 2009, Vitale opened the Stone Eagle Tavern in Rockford in an old Cheddar's location. Like the restaurants he ran before this, the Stone Eagle Tavern instantly became a local favorite with a varied and value oriented menu. But the Stone Eagle Tavern also incorporated a number of architectural antiques into the decor of the building. These antiques include a couple of stone eagle statues that flank the entrance to the restaurant given the eatery its name. He got those from a old Federal Bank building in New Jersey.

Pictured right - Jimmy Vitale

In 2012, Vitale opened a second location in Hoffman Estates hoping to tap into the growing NW Chicago suburbs. By all accounts it's been a rousing success. He's looking to add a third Stone Eagle Tavern in the near future, possibly in Madison, WI.

The Hoffman Estates Stone Eagle Tavern is located between Higgins Road and the Highway 59 Exit of of the Jane Addams Tollway (I-90) located on the south end of the Poplar Creek/Prairie Stone Shopping Center (see map). Walking past the two big stone eagles out front, I made may way into the place around 6:30 that particular evening. My dealer had not yet made it into the Stone Eagle Tavern when I got there. I told the hostess that I'd just go into the bar area and wait for him there.

As a throwback to the days of the original Jungle Jim's Oyster Bar, the bar at Stone Eagle Tavern features an oyster bar as part of the bar. However, in keeping with the architectural antique concept of his Rockford restaurant, Vitale installed a beautiful domed stained glass insert that he procured from a place on Long Island into the ceiling. It gave the bar area sort of a church-like feel to the place.

Curiously, some of the other displays in the bar area sort of made it look like it was run by the head of a Russian oligarchy. There was a vintage Indian motorcycle flanked by a stuff lion on one side and a stuffed Bengal tiger on the other. It sort of made me chuckle and shake my head as it was seemingly out of place for a classy place such as Stone Eagle Tavern. In contrast to the bar area, the walls in the dining area are adorned with the original walnut panels from the old Continental Bank building in downtown Chicago.

My dealer showed up not long after I got there and we decided just to eat at the bar. We took a table and our server for the evening, Jennifer, showed up with a couple of menus. My dealer had a late night/early morning of travel previously and was just wanting to drink iced tea. I ordered up a Goose Island Goose IPA.

The menu at Stone Eagle Tavern is extensive - wood-fired pizzas cooked in an American-made Renato brick oven; oysters on the half-shell, peel-and-eat shrimp, and steamed mussels from the oyster bar; and, of course with a name like Vitale, there has to be a number of Italian specialties on the menu. Stone Eagle Tavern also features a number of sandwiches, burgers, and appetizers along with a kids menu. And if you're looking for a good steak, you can ask the server for the "back pocket" menu.

They also featured a couple of good ol' comfort food items on the menu - the pot roast and the Tavern meatloaf. I had been eating crap for the past couple of days and comfort food sounded pretty good to me and I got the meatloaf. It came on a bed of garlic mashed potatoes with a side of cooked carrots. It was topped with a generous portion of onion straws and finished with a gravy sauce.

My dealer got the muffuletta sandwich which featured imported salami and ham with cheese, topped with an olive oil dressing and served on a Tuscan-style tomato focaccia bread. A chopped olive dressing - usually served on a muffuletta sandwich, no questions asked - was in a small bowl off to the side.

The meatloaf was thick cut, but it had sort of a peculiar taste to me. I thought it might have been the gravy, but it was definitely in the meat. It had sort of a medicine-like taste to me - sort of like they had put anise in the meat or something like that. It was noticeable enough to make me think that I didn't care for the taste of it that much. Still, it was good enough for me to eat nearly the whole slab of the meatloaf.

My dealer enjoyed his muffuletta sandwich. He said the sandwich was full of flavor and he said that he liked the bread very much. It was a big sandwich for the price and he was able to finish all but a couple three bites.

The food at Stone Eagle Tavern is a very good value - you get a lot for the price. I don't know if I care that much for the taste of the meatloaf, but my guest enjoyed his muffuletta sandwich. The decor ranges from curious to elegant, and if there is one problem with our visit was that our server - who was also a bartender - was too busy to take care of customers in her immediate area. With an extensive and varied menu, Stone Eagle Tavern does everything pretty well, just not great. And that's the problem with having so many things on a menu to choose from. But Stone Eagle Tavern seems to do it better than most.

I love to find good ol' Jewish deli's when I'm on the road - I'm particularly fond of a good hot pastrami on rye sandwich. I was somewhat surprised to find a somewhat long-time Jewish deli in the Chicago suburb of Naperville. Surprised, mainly because I didn't know of the place until a few weeks before. On a sunny late fall day, I stopped in to try the Schmaltz Deli.

Schmaltz Deli was founded in 2004 by Howard Bender, a Culinary Institute of America grad and a former chef at The Four Seasons in downtown Chicago. Finding that most of the best Jewish deli's were miles away from Naperville, he set out to recreate a classic Jewish delicatessen in the far western suburb that would feature over-stuffed sandwiches, homemade soups, bagels made in house, and a full-service meat counter. He called his delicatessen Schmaltz after the term for rendered chicken or goose fat used for cooking Jewish foods in Central Europe. (Schmaltz is also a Yiddish term for sentimental, as in, "This movie makes me all schmaltzy.")

Bender has also pushed the envelope in developing something that is slowly getting some national press - beef bacon, or as he calls it, Schmacon. Schmacon is a smoked, uncured beef that is similar to bacon, only with less sodium, less fat and less calories. They've come up with a patented process during the making of the Schmacon to give it the same texture and crispness as pork bacon. It's available primarily at grocery stores in the Chicago area, but is also available in Indianapolis, parts of Western Michigan, Southern Wisconsin and it's also available in Eastern Iowa at many Hy-Vee stores. I've tried it and it tastes like pastrami. I'm not certain that I'd replace bacon with Schmacon, but I think it would be interesting to try on a BLT instead of bacon.

Schmaltz Deli is located in a strip mall on the northeast corner of Ogden Ave. and Naperville Road in Naperville. (see map) There's plenty of parking in the lot in front of their space. Entering the establishment, you come to the front counter with the lunch menu on flat screen monitors behind the cash register. (Schmaltz Deli also features a breakfast menu that features traditional lox and bagels, egg sandwiches, omelets, and scrambled egg dishes. They also have challah French toast.) You place your order at the register and wait at the other end for them to make your order.

Schmaltz Deli features a good ol' fashioned meat counter with a half dozen people working behind it. It was just getting into the start of the lunch time rush and they weren't as busy when I came in as they were when I was leaving.

I found a table along a wall in the dining room on the opposite side of the deli counter. It was a long, narrow well-lit room with a number of photos of patrons on the wall.

Of course, I got a pastrami and Swiss on rye topped with some yellow mustard - overstuffed. When they gave me the sandwich at the counter, I thought, "Good God!" I didn't know if I could eat the whole thing. Thankfully, there are styrofoam boxes near the front of the dining room that you can take your leftovers. (If you don't want a stuffed sandwich with so much meat, they do have "half-stuffed" sandwiches at Schmaltz Deli.)

The pastrami was cut thin and was very lean. The sandwich came with a half kosher dill pickle and housemade bagel chips. Two hands were needed to keep the meat from falling out of the sandwich.

This was quite the sandwich. The swirled rye bread was soft and had that great rye taste to it. But the pastrami was exceptional. The seasoning was forward in its flavor, but not so much to overpower the other things involved with the sandwich. The Swiss cheese was lightly melted onto the hot pastrami and you could easily taste it with the bites of the meat.

The next thing I knew, I was having the last bite of the whole sandwich. Whoa! I went into this thinking that I'd take half the sandwich with me, but it was so good that I couldn't stop eating it. Yes, I was as stuffed as the sandwich was. I concentrated so much on the sandwich that I only had a couple bites of the kosher dill pickle and maybe a couple of the delicious bagel chips.

Schmaltz Deli was simply outstanding. It was one of the best pastrami and Swiss on rye sandwiches I've ever had. Everything - from the lean and delicious pastrami, the flavorful rye bread and the fresh Swiss cheese - made for a fantastic sandwich. For a great sandwich in a classic Jewish deli in the far western suburbs of Chicago, Schmaltz Deli is definitely the place to go.

I can't tell you how many people who have found out that Indian food is my "go-to" comfort food have told me about TAVA, an Indian restaurant on Dempster St. in the Chicago suburb of Morton Grove. I have a dealer down the road who told me that the place is just outstanding. An audio sales rep friend of mine swears that TAVA has the best Indian food he's ever had. Another friend of mine said that he eats there at least twice a month. "It's that good," he told me. With all these glowing reports on TAVA, I had to give it a try.

Now, I had been by TAVA many times since it opened in September of 2011. It's located in a strip mall on the NE corner of Dempster St. and Harlem Ave. in Morton Grove. (see map) The owner of TAVA, Mahesh Sharma, started out as an electrical engineer. But his love for cooking made him abandon that career for a new career working in kitchens at hotels in downtown Chicago.

Living in Morton Grove, Sharma realized that there wasn't a good Indian restaurant in the immediate area. He wanted to give back to the community by putting in his own Indian eatery, complete with upscale drinks, housemade curry dishes, and a menu that used the freshest ingredients. No foods are ever frozen before they're made at TAVA and real charcoal is used in the tandoor oven. Sharma named his restaurant after a tavah (or tawah) - a large disc-shaped cast iron griddle used to cook traditional South Asian foods. Continued use of the tavah puts a seasoned zest into the metal.

I had just finished up a long day of calls around the Chicago area and realized that I was about a 10 minute drive from TAVA. I scurried around some back roads to get to the restaurant just before 8 p.m. As soon as I opened the door that wonderful Indian spice smell from the food filled the air. The classy looking restaurant isn't large and is very dimly lit. There's a small bar area as you come into the restaurant that featured a large number of liquor bottles. The dining area was off to the left side from the bar and it's center piece was an elegant gas fire place along the wall.

I was taken to a small table along a wall that featured banquette seating and given a menu. The pictures I took of the inside of the restaurant didn't turn out because it was so dark in the room. (Above photos courtesy of Yelp.) I had to use the flashlight app on my phone just to be able to read the menu at TAVA. A server came over with some crisp papadum bread and some chutney. They had a mint chutney that was surprisingly spicy. I normally don't find mint chutney to be that spicy at many Indian restaurants, but this one definitely had a kick.

They have an extensive menu at TAVA with a number of chicken, lamb, seafood, and vegetarian dishes - they even have goat meat on the menu - and many of the entrees are gluten free. And if you want spicy food at TAVA, they've got a number of entrees to choose from. They have an potato cube and grilled onion appetizer that features something they call a "tangy volcano habanero chili pepper sauce" with apple cider. Yow!

Now, I had no idea that they were known for their great curry dishes at TAVA, so it was a complete shot in the dark when I ordered up some of their lamb curry. I also got some garlic naan to go along with it. And I got a large Kingfisher beer to go along with everything.

The lamb curry came out with a generous portion of steamed rice. The curry had a slight spicy taste and the lamb was tender and very flavorful. They signified on the menu that the curry was spicy, but it was far from what I would call as spicy. The garlic naan was fantastic - really full of garlic and very forward in taste. Dipping it into the curry sauce, it just heightened the taste of the garlic in the naan bread. It was a lot of food and I put a significant dent into all of it. It was that good.

Given the amount of glowing reports on TAVA before I went there, my expectations were very high. And I certainly wasn't disappointed. The lamb curry was exceptional, the garlic naan was some of the best I've ever had, and the amount of food I got for the price was an excellent value. The only quibble I would have about TAVA would be the choppy service. But I've learned that happens at most of the good Indian restaurants. You just have to go with the flow and hope to get their attention if you need anything. While I'm far from an Indian food connoisseur, I know what I like and the food I had at TAVA was some of the best Indian food I've ever had. (Picture courtesy Chicago Reader.)

I had been trying to meet up with a dealer from the western suburbs of Chicago on a handful of occasions over the summer months and our schedules just never came together. A few weeks ago, we finally made an appointment to have breakfast at a place just off I-88 at the Farnsworth exit and just across from the Chicago Premium Outlets mall in Aurora. The name of the place was also unique and sort of fun - Papa Bear. We met there on a sunny Friday morning on a recent trip into Chicago. (see map)

Pete Andrelopopouls is the owner of Papa Bear which originally opened in 1982. It's a family style restaurant that features breakfast, lunch and dinner. It's open 7 days a week at 6 a.m., closing at 10 p.m. (9 p.m. on Sundays.)

I was a little early for the breakfast meeting and waited at the hostess stand for my dealer to show up. There are two dining areas at Papa Bear - the front room has a traditional counter behind a half wall. When my dealer showed up, we were seated in a booth in the back dining room.

The breakfast menu at Papa Bear is rather extensive. There were the normal egg dishes including three egg omelets, pancakes, a number of skillet entrees and a surprising number of Mexican-style breakfasts on the menu. They also had crepes, baked goods, steak entrees and breakfast sandwiches on the menu. There was no way I was going to be able to take less than 10 minutes to dissect the menu.

A couple things jumped out at me - the corned beef hash special came with two eggs, hash browns and choice of toast or pancakes; and the Farmer's skillet with corned beef hash, hash browns, eggs your way, fried onions and melted cheese. I've been on sort of a corned beef hash kick for breakfast lately. (And I still can't understand why restaurants serve hash browns with corned beef hash. It's sort of a duplicity, in my book.)

But then I saw the cinnamon-swirl French toast. I asked our waitress if I could get blueberries with them and she said it was no problem. "How about whipped cream," she asked. I couldn't say no. My dealer went light - a bowl of oatmeal and an English muffin. I also got a side of bacon to go along with the French toast.

When she brought out the cinnamon-swirl French toast, our eyes much have gone the size of silver dollars. It was topped with a generous portion of blueberries and a large amount of whipped cream. The cinnamon-swirl bread was cut thick, dipped in a vanilla batter and flat grilled. (I thought I could also tell a bit of nutmeg in the batter, as well.) The taste of the French toast on its own was very good. Adding the blueberries gave it an even better taste and the whipped cream was, well, the icing on the cake, so to speak. The bacon - four pieces - was crisp and thick. I ended up sharing a couple pieces of the bacon with my dealer because I had a lot of food on my plate. I was almost embarrassed by what I got compared to my dealers breakfast. And I had a hard time putting down the fork to not overeat. The cinnamon-swirl French toast topped with blueberries and whipped cream was a decadent start to my day.

I'll have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by how good the cinnamon-swirl French toast was at Papa Bear. Topping it off with blueberries and whipped cream made it even better. This was a lot of food - I ended up skipping lunch that day as I was not hungry until dinner that evening. Their breakfast menu had a lot of choices, the service was efficient and friendly, the restaurant was clean and comfortable and the breakfast I had at Papa Bear was very good to excellent. This is simply a great place for breakfast and I'm sure their lunch and dinner choices are good, as well.

When we were in Chicago for our Asian cultural and cuisine tour earlier this fall (click here to see that entry), we stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn out by O'Hare - my de facto home away from home (when I can get in there) in Chicago. We were in the bar area having a beer or two and my wife was talking to one of the servers in the bar about places around the area. The server said, "Have you guys ever gone to the Hala Kahiki Lounge? It's a tiki bar, just down the road." She told us that it was a Hawaiian bar serving tropical drinks. Our friends, Jay and Pam, have spent considerable time in Hawaii - Jay even lived on a boat in Hawaii for awhile. Before going to dinner that evening, we decided to head to Hala Kahiki to check the place out.

How a tiki bar started in Chicago over 50 years ago and sustained all these years is an interesting back story to the place. Rose and Stanley Sacharski, Jr. were running a funeral home in the Buck Town neighborhood in Chicago. Business wasn't all that great and with a young family the Sacharski's would sometimes have to work second jobs to help pay the bills (Stan drove a cab for a few years). They decided that if they were to have second jobs, they may as well work at some place that they own.

A tavern on W. Fullerton near the Elmwood Park area was for sale and with money saved up from their second jobs, the Sacharski's bought it in 1964. It was just a neighborhood tavern that was pretty nondescript. However, the Sacharski's decided it needed a little livening up. Rose Sacharski had fake ferns and flowers that she used in the place. The floor of their little tavern was painted in a tropical color. Unbeknownst to them, the tavern had - ironically - been a funeral home years before. They named their little bar the Lucky Start, hoping the name would give them good luck.

After World War II, the tiki culture - fueled by U.S. servicemen who came back from the South Pacific - became a phenomenon, albeit one where many Americans were misinformed on the true tiki culture. Many homes built in America in the 50's and early 60's had a family room in the basement that had sort of a south seas look to the rooms. Tiki bars began to pop up around the nation, thanks to the success of West Coast entities like Don the Beachcomber and Trader Vic's. People coming in to the Lucky Start would remark that it sort of had a tropical or "tiki" feel to the place. Rose Sacharski saw an opportunity and she had Stan go to Sears to buy palm-matted wallpaper and bamboo poles. In the daytime, Rose would design the decorations and Stan would do the installations. At night, people would come in and be dazzled by the tropical motif. Rose decided that they needed to add tropical drinks to the bar menu. The Lucky Start was a hit with its patrons.

But the area was changing around them. The Ukranian and Polish churches in the area began to close up and many of the ladies who were in the church clubs in the neighborhood that frequented the Lucky Start quit coming in. The Sacharski's decided to sell the bar and look for a new place further west.

They found a "shot-and-a-beer" place on River Road in near west suburban River Grove that was for sale. The building originally was a greenhouse and it still had the pane-glass windows in the front of the place. It later became a general store, then a gas station before it became a neighborhood working class bar frequented by truckers who ran freight to and from nearby O'Hare Airport. In another ironic twist, the bar had kind of a funeral theme to the place. There was a mural of a cemetery on the wall behind the bar and for $10 bucks customers could get their names printed on gravestones on the wall. The Sacharski's bought the bar and went full bore in turning the place into a full fledged tiki bar.

The family - including their kids Rosemarie (a.k.a Dolly), Stanley, III (a.k.a. Sonny), and Stanlene (a.k.a. Cookie), - lived in a small apartment in the back of the bar. Trying to figure out a name for the place, one of the kids was reading a Dennis the Menace comic book where the Mitchell family was in Hawaii. They were visiting a pineapple plantation and the name of the place was called "Hala Kahiki" - roughly "House of Pineapple." Haha Kahiki was born.

The first three years were trying for the Sacharski's - the place was drafty thanks to the glass-pane windows. The regular truckers would laugh at the family for thinking they could turn the little dive bar into a tiki bar. And they served burgers topped with pineapple slices, pork and other island-themed foods. But the bar became so popular that they eventually quit selling food, took out the kitchen and added more seating in its place, expanded the bar and rebuilt the outer wall where the glass-panes from the old greenhouse once were.

The whole family worked in the place - Sonny Sacharski was a bartender along with his father and mother, Cookie and Dolly would mix up the ingredients for the tropical drinks and wait tables. Rose Sacharski started to buy up Witco tiki carvings - a hit with many people decorating their homes in island themes. She bought - and subsequently sold - a number of Witco carvings to patrons that she turned the family's apartment into a gift shop. Hala Kahiki now has one of the largest collections of Witco tiki carvings in existence. An author once called the tiki bar the "King Tut's Tomb of Witco" carvings.

A third generation of the Sacharski family, Cookie's son Jim Oppedisano, started to work in the bar when he was in the second grade helping his grandmother clean and restock product for $2 bucks an hour. He later helped out with payroll, mixing the ingredients for drinks, repairs and other things. But he didn't join the business out of high school like his mom, aunt and uncle. He went to college for a brief spell, then worked at a Sears for awhile. He eventually became a Starbucks manager and met a young lady who he would eventually marry who was also a manager at a Starbucks not far from his store.

The oldest of the Sacharski children, Dolly, died of heart failure in the mid-80's at the age of 40. When Stan Sacharski, Jr. died in 1998, Cookie and Sonny took over ownership of Hala Kahiki while Rose still came in to work at the gift shop or tend bar from time to time. Rose passed away in 2005 while Sonny passed away in his sleep at the age of 57 two years later. His wife, Maggie, took over his part of the bar along with Cookie Oppedisano.

When Cookie died in 2011, Jim Oppedisano was her heir-apparent to take over her part of the business. The younger Oppedisano was in the advertising industry - working at the bar at times when he and his wife would come back to visit. He wasn't certain that he wanted to take over his mom's share. Hala Kahiki was making money, but there was little to no management going on in the place. After Sonny's death, Connie tried to run the place by herself. Work schedules were haphazard and Oppedisano feared that employees were stealing from the company. She had simply become burned out.

Did he want to be a bartender the rest of his life? No, was his answer. But was there a potential to grow the business? Absolutely, was his answer. He took over the business after his mother's death. (Maggie Sacharski passed away in 2014 and her shares of the business have been passed along to her two children.)

Oppedisano saw a place that was pretty tired looking and in need of some invigoration. Knowing that he couldn't completely revamp the decor, he decided to live with it the kitschy look to the place. The patio furniture needed to be replaced, the parking lot was revamped, and he added a juke box to allow patrons to play their own music rather than listening to Hawaiian music all the time. He added beer and wine selections in the bar. One would think that these little changes would upset the regular patrons or tiki purists that visited the bar, but 2014 was their biggest year in business and 2015 promises to be just as good if not better.

Hala Kahiki still does not have meals. They provide free pretzels to patrons and they do have authentic taro chips and sweet potato chips, as well as vegetable chips with mango or pineapple salsa. To this day, people who aren't familiar with Hala Kahiki who come in looking for food, are usually dismayed that it's generally drinks only at the place. They're the ones that will get up and leave five minutes after they've arrived.

Another interesting thing about Hala Kahiki - they also serve fortune cookies after the patrons are finished with their drinks. Now, I'm sure you're wondering why a tiki bar would be giving out fortune cookies. It turns out that Stan Sacharski was stationed in San Francisco while in the Navy and thought the little "fortune tea cakes" that Chinese restaurants would give out were a nice little touch.

Servicemen returning to points all over the United States who had spent time in San Francisco during and after World War II would ask their local Chinese restaurants why they didn't have the little fortune cookies like the ones in the Bay Area. During the war, nearly a dozen Chinese bakeries in the San Francisco area were making these little treats, hand folding the small fortune strips into the dough before baking. They couldn't make enough to keep up with the demand in the Bay Area, let alone try to make enough to send around the U.S.

That is, until Edward Louie - the owner of the now defunct Lotus Cookie Company - came up with an automatic fortune cookie machine. Suddenly, the San Francisco bakeries had the means of making upwards of 250 million fortune cookies annually and by 1960 fortune cookies had become a mainstay of Chinese/American culture. Rose and Stan Sacharski thought giving out fortune cookies would be a nice talking point about Hala Kahiki, especially with the servicemen who served in the Pacific theater during World War II and came into their tiki lounge.

It was an unseasonably warm fall day when we went to Hala Kahiki. (see map) I had driven past the place a few times over the years but never really noticed it - mainly because there's no large sign out front of the place. (Plus, my wife says that I'm just not very observant.) It was just before 7 p.m. when we walked in.

We walked into the bar area of the place and it was like we were transported into a South Seas tiki bar. While it was sort of kitschy, it was done in a very tasteful way. There were no windows in the place and seemingly nearly every bit of the woven palm-matted wallpaper was covered with something. It was cozy, pleasant and curious all at once. Jay - who has studied and practiced Buddism - especially liked the Laughing Buddha statue on the bar.

We were greeted by a young lady who asked if we had reservations. We didn't know we needed them. She said, "On Friday and Saturday nights - especially after 8 p.m. - reservations are generally required. It gets really full in here." But she said she had room for us. We found out that there was an outdoor patio area and Cindy thought it would be nice to go out there and have a drink.

When we got out there, we sat at a table and were given drink menus to look through. The drink menu was, well, almost overwhelming. Nearly every tropical drink with little umbrellas known to man - and then some - were featured on the menu. They also had chocolate drinks, hot coffee drinks, cream drinks, daiquiris, and ice cream drinks on the menu. It was going to take us a long time to check out all the drinks they had.

While we were sorting through the menu, I felt a mosquito bite on my ankle. Then another. I am a mosquito magnet - especially after having a couple of beers. It turns out that Jay is also a mosquito magnet - and he isn't that much of a drinker. He has a bald head and they were buzzing him pretty good. Cindy immediately said, "We can't sit out here and have you guys get bit up." We walked back inside and asked if we could get a seat inside.

She took us back to a room toward the back of the place. It was like going deeper and deeper into a vault filled with Polynesian and Hawaiian artifacts. We took a seat at a table and dove back into the drink menu.

To say Hala Kahiki was unique would be, well, a major understatement. Leopard print lampshades, Polynesian art work, tiki carvings - nothing against our guests, but it was almost more interesting to get up and look around the place than it was to sit at a table and chat.

Cindy and I are big mai tai fans. Jay and Pam, as I said earlier, aren't big drinkers. They're more of an apple cider kind of couple. They didn't really know what to order and Cindy said that she thought they'd like the mai tais. So, we ordered a round of mai tais for the table. They came out adorned with a slice of pineapple, a plastic palm tree swizzle stick and what I believe was a palm leaf. I thought they were pretty good - not as good as I remember having when we were in Hawaii - but good enough for the middle of United States.

It turned out that Pam and Jay didn't care much for their mai tais. They didn't care for the sweet and sour taste of the drink. So, they let Cindy and I have their drinks. Now, one was probably enough, but two was pushing my limit.

Instead of mai tais, Pam got a daiquiri drink while Jay got a drink that was - well, I don't remember what it was. All I know is that it was a color unlike any drink I've ever seen before. It, too, came with a palm leaf, palm tree swizzle stick (of which Cindy kept the ones we had in our mai tais), and a pineapple slice. I think they were more happy with these drinks than with the mai tais. That was fine with us as Cindy and I both enjoyed having more mai tais than we probably should have had.

Our goal was to have one drink and go get some Indian food for the evening. (Well, in my wife's and my case, it was two drinks.) Jay had been noticing people walking past us, past a small hanging bamboo opening and disappearing in the back. I knew the bathrooms were closer to the bar and that's where I headed after I finished my second mai tai before we left. Pam and Cindy sort of wandered around the place looking at the artwork, while Jay said to himself, "I wonder what is back here?" He went through the hanging bamboo opening, around a corner and found himself in the South Seas Gift Shop.

I went out the front door of the lounge and walked around to the side where the outside entrance of the gift shop. Jay was in there talking to a lady who was seated behind the counter. I like a good comfortable Hawaiian shirt and they had one of the largest collections I've ever seen in the Midwest.

This place was beyond trippy. They had clothing for men and women, women's jewelry and accessories, tiki carvings, hula girl lamps, statues, novelty signs, and hundreds of other kitschy items throughout the gift shop. But possibly the most trippy part of the gift shop was the lady behind the counter. She was a SALESWOMAN! She was trying to sell Jay and I everything in the gift shop, pointing out different things, offering deals and discounts on multiple items they had in stock, even letting us know that the shop was closed on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, but if you asked someone at the bar if you could get in to look around they would be able to open it up. Jay and I sort of looked at one another and smiled. She was doing her damnedest to sell us something before we got out of there.

Another couple of people came into the gift shop and she started up with her spiel again. Jay and I kind of glanced at one another very quickly and he burst out laughing. She was definitely putting the hammer down on getting someone to buy something.

By this time, Pam and Cindy had wandered into the gift shop. And the lady started in with her spiel on them. Cindy pointed out the Hawaiian shirts and called me over to look at them. The lady sensed our interest in the shirts and she started to tell us that she'd give special pricing on the shirts if we bought three or more. Now, these were real Hawaiian shirts and I don't know if you have priced good Hawaiian shirts but they usually start on the north side of $60 bucks. They really did have some great shirts, but I wasn't ready to part with any money to buy three or four at a special price.

When we left the gift shop, Cindy and Pam were laughing hysterically at how the lady was really going all out in trying to point out nearly every item in the gift shop. "She wouldn't stop," Pam said laughingly. "I would be looking at something and then she'd try to get my attention to show me something on the other side of the shop." As a longtime salesman, I could tell that she was a good one - probably too good.

So, that was our first experience at the Hala Kahiki Lounge and South Seas Gift Shop. I've never seen a tiki bar in the Midwest that has such an elaborate and extensive collection of South Seas and Hawaiian artifacts on display. The interesting thing about all this is that no one from the Sacharski family tree - from Stan, Jr. and Rose, down to their kids and now their grandkids - have ever been to Hawaii. In fact, no one has been further west than California. But they've certainly done their homework in making Hala Kahiki one of the foremost tiki bars anywhere. They certainly have a great selection of tropical drinks, don't expect to get food as they don't have a kitchen, linger and take a look at the artifacts and artwork throughout the place, and don't forget to go to the gift shop if it's open. Hala Kahiki is fun and peculiar, exotic and unusual, remarkable and bizarre, marvelous and mysterious. It's definitely one of a kind.

I stay in the western Chicago suburb of Addison from time to time - especially when I can't get into my favorite hotel near O'Hare Airport. It turned out that I stayed a couple nights at a hotel along Lake Street in Addison on recent trip to Chicago. For years, I've been intrigued by a place along Lake Street near the hotel that is in a strip mall that faces the street called Franky's Red Hots. One rainy evening, I decided to stop in and give them a try. (see map)

Frank Espano is the Franky behind the name. The Franky's on Lake Street opened in 1989 specializing not only in Chicago-style hot dogs, but Chicago-style Italian beef sandwich, pizza, ribs and gyros. In April of 2014, Franky's opened a second location in St. Charles, IL along E. Main Street, about a half mile west of the Charlestowne Mall. (see map)

Franky's dining area is large, open and well-lit. It features booths as well as tables with chairs. It's nothing fancy, but it's comfortable enough. On a rainy night, there were a lot of people coming in to get "to-go" orders including a surprising number of pizzas that I saw go out the door.

You place your order at the counter and they'll call out your name when your order is ready. The menu board is above the counter and it's extensive enough that if you can't find something to eat at Franky's, you're probably not hungry. As I said, they're best known for their Chicago-style hot dogs and Italian beef, but in addition to pizza, gyros and ribs they also feature burgers, chicken sandwiches, pork chop sandwiches, chicken wings, Italian sausage sandwiches, chicken tenders, salads and pasta dishes.

I wanted to try both an Italian beef sandwich and a hot dog at Franky's. Their Italian beef sandwiches are 8" in length and come wrapped in aluminum foil. It came with a slice of mozzarella cheese on top. I made the rookie mistake at Franky's for not asking for spicy giardiniera peppers on my sandwich, but that was fine on this visit. The beef was very moist and juicy with a great Italian-beef taste. The hoagie bun was a bit chewy like it had been sitting in a warming bin a little too long, but it was still fine.

The hot dog came with the full complement of Chicago-style fixings - onion, green relish, mustard, tomato, dill pickle spear and the spicy sport peppers. It, too, was wrapped in aluminum foil making the bun a little chewy. The hot dog lacked the snap of a good Vienna Beef Chicago-style hot dog, but it was still good for what it was.

For a place that has to go head-to-head with some more well-known Chicago Italian beef and hot dog places, Franky's does a fine job keeping up with the competition. They seem to have found their little niche in the western suburbs and continue to do what they do pretty well. The hot dog and the Italian beef sandwich were both good, not great, but good enough. I wouldn't have any qualms about going back to Franky's in the future.

One of my dealers in the Chicago area told me of a place that he and his family like to go to for kind of a casual night out from time to time, a sports bar not far from where they live in Naperville called the Crosstown Pub and Grill. He raved about their food from their chicken wings to their burgers to the stuffed mac & cheese dishes that both his daughter and his wife really like. I decided to give Crosstown Pub a try for lunch when I was in the area one day earlier this summer.

Jim Nichols is the owner/chef of the Crosstown Pub in Naperville. In addition to being a chef, Nichols is a huge sports fan and he named his restaurant after the series of games played in the regular baseball season between the Chicago Cubs and Nichols' beloved Chicago White Sox. But his love for the rivalry between the baseball teams doesn't stop there as his restaurant is a shrine to the other professional teams in the Chicago area. Nichols, with the help of his wife Susy, opened Crosstown Pub in 2007 and earlier this year they opened a second location just off Randall Road in the far western suburb of Batavia.

I got into Crosstown Pub around 1:30 on a dreary summer afternoon. The restaurant is located on the busy Ogden Ave. corridor in Naperville. (see map) It had been spitting rain off and on for a good portion of the day and the outdoor seating area at Crosstown was closed up. I went into the bar area and took a seat at the bar. I was greeted by one of the bartenders, Tosha, who dropped off a menu. I ordered up a beer as I looked through the menu.

I went into Crosstown Pub thinking about getting a burger or possibly a sandwich, but I found that they had a number of interesting items on the menu. The "Schmacon Me Crazy" sandwich was Crosstown's take on a BLT and featured American cheese melted over slices of beef bacon sourced from the nearby Schmaltz Deli, along with lettuce, tomatoes and a garlic-pesto sauce and served in between two slices of Texas toast. They also had jambalaya on the menu, as well as grilled chicken kabobs with pineapple, white onions and green pepper topped with a Jamaican jerk sauce served over dirty rice with andouille sausage. That sounded very interesting.

Their very well known for the burgers at Crosstown Pub. The burger meat is a blend of chuck, brisket and round cuts of beef, antibiotic and hormone free. And there doesn't seem to be much of a basic burger on the menu (although I'm sure you can order one like that). For example - they have a burger with grilled jalapeños, guacamole, chipotle mayo, chopped cilantro and crumbled farmers cheese with is basically a dry cottage cheese or similar to Cotija cheese in Mexican food. Another burger - the Master - features a burger patty soaked in teriyaki and topped with grilled pineapple slices, crumbled blue cheese and bacon.

One of my dealers who follows my blog told me this summer, "Man, you write a lot about burgers." Well, I guess I do. But I like burgers. (At one time I was going to start an off-shoot blog called "Burger Lust", but decided not to.) But as interesting as the burgers were at Crosstown Pub, I found something on the menu that tripped my trigger more than a burger. The fish tacos.

They actually had a handful of Mexican options on the menu, but the fish tacos stood right out. The flour tortillas were filled with chunks of a cajun season grilled cod fish, topped with the farmers cheese, slices of green onions, a mango/pineapple relish and drizzled with a copious amount of a chipotle mayo sauce. When I ordered them from Tosha, she asked, "Do you want guacamole with the tacos?" I couldn't say no. Black beans - not refried, thankfully - came with the tacos as well as a side of rice.

I added the guac and some of the black beans (topped with the farmers cheese) and the rice (more like a Cajun-seasoned rice) to the tacos and took my first bite. Man, there were a lot of taste sensations going on all at once. I caught the coolness of the guacamole and the mango/pineapple relish and I got the spiciness of the chipotle mayo sauce and the Cajun seasoning on the fish and rice. The beans were the a great addition to the taco. I'll take black beans over refried beans any day.

I have to say that was mightily impressed with the fish tacos at Crosstown Pub. Much of the menu looked very interesting. Even though it's a sports bar, the food they serve at Crosstown Pub is definitely a notch or two above the typical fare you see at most other sports bars. My mission is to get back to have a burger at some point. I can easily see why Crosstown Pub is one of my dealer's favorite places to go with his family.

I had an early morning meeting in Oak Brook, a suburb on the west side of the Chicago metro area, and I ended up staying the night at a hotel that I hadn't been to in years and years. I did some scouting around the area to see if there was something that I might like to get and I found a barbecue place that sounded sort of interesting - and a name that I remembered later on for seeing one of their locations in the far northern suburbs of Chicago - Real Urban Barbecue. I headed over there to try some barbecue that particular evening.

Like most barbecue places, Real Urban Barbecue came out of what was an award winning team on the competition barbecue front. Jeff Shapiro was a native of the north shore Chicago suburb of Highland Park who loved barbecue. He started to enter competition barbecue events with the team name of Dr. Deckle and Mr. Hide. Shapiro also expanded his knowledge of barbecue as visited famous barbecue places in Kansas City, Memphis, Texas, the Carolinas and St. Louis. After winning some events, he did what the majority of other barbecue circuit winners do - he opened his own barbecue place. The only difference between Shapiro and many of the same barbecue competitors who opened their own places is that he actually had extensive restaurant experience prior to opening his own barbecue joint.

As a young man Shapiro started in the restaurant business working for the Lettuce Entertain You conglomeration of restaurants in the Chicago area that included stops along the way at R.J. Grunts, Bub City, P.J. Clarke'sand the now closed Papagus and Bones (now known as L. Woods) restaurants. After leaving Lettuce Entertain You, Shapiro became the operations manager at Carmichael's Steakhouse that was located near the United Center which was a popular destination for people going to or coming from a Chicago Bulls or Blackhawks game. (Carmichael's was open for 18 years before closing earlier this year.)

Shapiro sensed that an urban barbecue place was something that people were clamoring for and he opened his first Real Urban Barbecue location in Highland Park in November of 2010. He opened his second Real Urban Barbecue in far north suburban Vernon Park in July of 2012. (I actually saw that location not long after it opened up and it sort of piqued my interest.) And in November of last year, he opened a third location in Oak Brook.

The Oak Brook location is on Clearwater Drive near the corner of York Road and 22nd St., about a half mile east of the Oakbrook Center shopping and entertainment complex. (see map) It's located on the west end of a strip mall that's visible from 22nd St.

It was around 8 p.m. when I got into Real Urban Barbecue. It's a cafeteria-style place where you place your order with a guy who cuts the ribs, slices the brisket, dollops the pulled pork and dishes out the sides and plops everything down on a tray. The menu is located along the wall above the counter and their main feature are the pork ribs that you can get either wet - with the barbecue sauce served on them; dry - with nothing on them; rubbed - a Memphis-style dry rub blend of spices; or "perfection" - which is basically Memphis-style and wet together. As I said, they also feature brisket and pulled pork along with smoked turkey, burnt ends, chicken and sausage.

I went with a combo plate of ribs - I got them wet, but I should have just gone for the Memphis-style rubbed - pulled pork and brisket. I had the guy put some barbecue sauce on the brisket and pork, too. But I found that was a mistake. They had barbecue sauce on the table and I wanted to try the different styles that they had on the meats. They had a number of sides in steamers along the cook line that included mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, a walnut/sweet potato souffle, and a sort of scalloped corn side. I ended up going with the dirty rice (something I don't think I've encountered at a barbecue place in the Midwest) and, of course, the baked beans. I also got a couple cans of the Revolution Brewing Company Anti-Hero IPA. Finally, a big handful of dill pickles came with the barbecue. I love dill pickles with my barbecue.

I sat down on a long community table in the main dining area. There are two rooms to dine in at the Real Urban Barbecue location in Oak Brook. On the walls there's corrugated metal wainscoting and above that are signs and pictures of places that Jeff Shapiro visited on his barbecue pilgrimages. I recognized many of the ones from Kansas City and Memphis that he visited. Seated at the end of the same table I was at was a guy working on his computer. I recognize him now from the picture above - it was Jeff Shapiro. Wish I would have known it was him. I would have loved to have talked to him about his trips to barbecue places.

The sauces they had on the table were sort of interesting. The Original sauce is a Kansas City-style sweet sauce. The Texas Roadhouse sauce had a nice spicy bite to it. There was a Carolina vinegar sauce called Piedmont. The Mustard sauce featured a blend of 3 different types of mustard. And something that they just happened to have on the table along with their four regular sauces was a Bloody Mary sauce that had elements of a bloody mary mix with some horseradish mixed in.

First of all, this was a lot of food. The ribs were big and meaty, the slabs of the brisket were thick, and there was a good helping of the pulled pork. The pulled pork had some of the burnt outer side of the pork butt mixed in that gave the pork a nice smoky caramelized taste. It was a shame that I got the barbecue sauce on it at the counter because I would have loved for the full taste of the pork to shine through before I put barbecue sauce on it on my own.

The ribs were all right - they were a little tough and dried out. They probably had been lying there a good portion of the day in a holding oven. They were pretty disappointing.

But the brisket and the pulled pork more than made up for the ribs. The brisket was tender and had a great taste. The pulled pork - in addition to the smoky caramelized chunks - was moist, tender and scrumptious. I couldn't make up my mind what I liked more - the pulled pork or the brisket. If I had to say, I'd go 1) brisket; 1A) pulled pork; 3) ribs.

Trying the different barbecue sauces, I determined that I liked the spicy Texas roadhouse sauce the best, followed closely by the Original sauce. The vinegary Piedmont sauce had a nice peppery taste and I liked it better than the Bloody Mary sauce that would have been a nice addition to, well, a bloody Mary. Finally, the mustard sauce was down on my list only because I don't care for mustard-based barbecue sauces. But each of them were a unique taste in their own right.

I almost forgot to comment on the sides I got - the dirty rice was a nice surprise that they had it as a side, but it was sort of bland and sort of "meh!" It, too, may have suffered from being in a steam bin a good portion of the day. And the baked beans featured five different types of beans (by my count) and all had a distinctive flavor. A flavor that I didn't care for, but some people may.

The brisket and the pulled pork were the stars at Real Urban Barbecue. Next time I'll get them served dry and put my own barbecue sauce on them. The Texas Roadhouse and the Original sauces were my favorite, but I was disappointed in the ribs and somewhat in the sides, as well. Overall, this was a good barbecue experience - not as good as some I've encountered in the St. Louis/Memphis/Kansas City triangle of great barbecue places. But Real Urban Barbecue acquitted themselves very well compared to others in the Chicago area.

One evening when I was in the Northwest suburbs of Chicago last winter, I passed a barbecue place that I'd never known about, a place called JD's Q and Brew. I turned around and went back to get something to eat, but found that they had closed for the evening at 8 p.m. (winter hours). I made a mental note to go back there at some point and I had the chance to do so earlier this summer.

The two men behind JD's Q and Brew are cousins Peter Veremis and Thanos "Tom" Grigorio. Veremis and Grigorio both have extensive backgrounds in barbecue - Veremis has been in the restaurant business for over 25 years and ran a barbecue place in Calumet City on Chicago's far south side before opening JD's in the fall of 2012. He brought in Grigorio because of his extensive knowledge around a barbecue place - over 30 years of expertise.

Veremis wanted a place that also had an extensive selection of beers. A restaurant consultant told him to keep the beer menu to a minimum, but Veremis dismissed the advice and went with a large number of bottled beers from craft breweries around the Midwest and beyond. The beer menu at JD's features over 100 different beers to choose from.

JD's Q and Brew is located on Rand Rd. in Arlington Heights, just north and west of Palatine Rd. (see map) I had just come from a dealer in the area and decided to grab some lunch at JD's around 1:30 one afternoon. The dining area was spacious with a number of tables and chairs in the middle with comfy booths along two walls.

The menu is located on a board behind the front counter where you order. They serve all the regular barbecue items at JD's - ribs, pulled pork, brisket, chicken and turkey. Sandwiches include pulled pork or pulled chicken sandwiches, a smoked turkey breast sandwich, and smoked Cajun sausage. They also feature hamburgers, shrimp, grilled tilapia, and beer battered cod on the menu.

Having such a large selection of beers can be troublesome for a restaurant - just as the restaurant consultant told Peter Veremis when he opened for business about three years ago. I ordered a Lagunitas IPA that they had on tap, but the first taste told me that the keg had turned flat. I took it back to the counter and the young lady had a manager come over to try the beer. He poured some from the tap into a glass and took a swig. "Yep! That's gone flat," he pronounced.

From there, I had to pick another beer. I looked through the beer menu that they had and saw that they had the Three Floyd's Dreadnaught IPA in a bottle. Well, it's turned out that no, they didn't have that particular beer in stock. I was trying to find something else to have and I noticed in the glass doored cooler that they had the Lagunitas IPA in a bottle. After some confusion with the girl taking my order as to whether I could actually change from a Lagunitas draft to a Lagunitas bottle, I ended up getting one of those. It was a bit of a hassle, but at least I got a beer.

I ordered the brisket and burnt ends combo platter and got baked beans and onion straws for sides. I hadn't sat down for anymore than three minutes before they brought my plate out to me. The first thing I noticed was that the onion straws - plenty on my plate - were woefully burnt and I found them to be inedible. That was a bummer because I really like onion straws. Frankly, I'm surprised the person back in the kitchen even let these get put onto a plate with the other food. (Click on the picture to get a closer look. Some of the onion straws appear to be black from overcooking.)

I've never been big on burnt ends, but I've sort of grown to like them on a couple recent trips to a couple of my favorite barbecue places in Kansas City. The burnt ends at JD's Q and Brew were tender and tasty. I added some of their chipotle sauce to give it a little kick in taste. The chipotle sauce had a nice smoked pepper flavor to it, but it wasn't all that spicy in taste. The regular house sauce was actually sort of bland and lifeless.

The brisket was also moist and tender, easily cut with a fork. It had a nice smoke ring on the outer edge and was good without any sauce added. I'm a sauce guy with my barbecue and while the chipotle sauce was fine, it wasn't anything that jumped out and made me go "Wow!"

The baked beans had chunks of bacon and pork in them. They were all right - sort of bland in taste. I added some of the regular house sauce that did nothing to add to the bland taste. Adding some of the chipotle sauce only made them marginally better.

The confusion with the server on the beer choice after the draft beer I'd ordered turned out to be flat, the overcooked onion straws and the simple barbecue sauces sort of put a damper on the overall meal at JD's Q and Brew. The interior and exterior were very nice and inviting. The brisket was all right, as were the burnt ends. The barbecue at JD's was average - at best - and I don't think I'd go out of my way to go have barbecue there again.

I was in the western suburbs of Chicago on a recent trip there and decided that I needed something along the lines of comfort food for dinner one evening. Having Indian food - my usual go-to comfort food - the night before, I decided to find a German restaurant. A quick look on my GPS told me of a German restaurant in the suburb of Lisle, not far from where I was. It wasn't long before I pulled into the Bavarian Lodge along Ogden Ave. (see map)

Since the restaurant opened in 1986, it was known as Chef Paul's Bavarian Lodge. Owner/chef Paul Taylor ran the business for nearly 25 years before his son Alan took over the place and changed the name to simply the Bavarian Lodge. Alan Taylor put more of an emphasis on craft beers to go along with their German foods. Their beer selection features over three dozen beers on tap and nearly 150 bottled beers, many of which are European imports and American craft beers.

It was after 8 p.m. on a weekday night (the Bavarian Lodge is closed on Monday and Tuesday) when I got into the restaurant. They feature a large dining area, but I opted to sit in the bar area after I asked the hostess if I could eat at the bar. The dimly lit bar area looked more like an old German beer hall whereas the dining area sort of looked like a more formal sit-down restaurant.

On the wall behind me was the ever-changing list of beers they had on tap at the Bavarian Lodge. It was a great beer selection, I'd have to say. One of my favorite American craft beers - the Ballast Point Sculpin IPA - had just been added to the tap list according to the bartender. I couldn't pass up a pint of that.

The menu at the Bavarian Lodge is an extensive mix of authentic German fare featuring a large number of appetizers such as a wurst platter, German potato pancakes, Hungarian goulash soup, breaded white cheddar cheese curds, and Amish duck wings. Dinner entrees include sausage plates, about a dozen different pork schnitzel platters, European specialties such as beef stroganoff and stuffed cabbage rolls, and traditional German foods such as roasted duck, Kassler rippchen, and jager huhnerschnitzel which are chicken breasts in a white wine mushroom cream sauce.

I started off with a cup of the liver dumpling soup that was served with a somewhat hard pumpernickel roll. The beef liver dumpling was void of that liver-type taste and was very good. The broth was slightly salty, but it was a great dipping agent for the pumpernickel roll.

My main entree that evening was the sauerbraten - marinated beef slices topped with a somewhat citrus tasting sauce that I found very pleasing. The sauce also had a sneaky peppery taste on the taste buds. I got a side of spatzle and red cabbage to go along with the sauerbraten.

I will say that the sauerbraten with the gravy sauce was very good. Tender, easy to cut, flavorful on its own, the sauerbraten's overall taste was amplified by the tart sauce. The spatzle had a nice consistency and wasn't overcooked. And the red cabbage had a great sweet and sour taste quality. There was nothing that I could complain about with this meal.

As I was having dinner at the bar, a gentleman around the corner of the bar where I was seated was having a conversation with the bartender. He had a heavy German accent and it turned out that he was, indeed, from Germany. It appeared that this gentleman was a regular customer at the Bavarian Lodge, saying that it was the only place he'd come across in his frequent travels to Chicago that had what he felt was authentic German food.

With that type of a ringing endorsement from a native of Germany, I can't deny that the food I had at the Bavarian Lodge was some of the better German food that I've had. The sauerbraten was exquisite, the spatzle and red cabbage were equally wonderful, the liver dumpling soup was some of the best I've ever had, and the selection of beers both on tap and in bottles was very impressive. There's not a lot of German restaurants in the Midwest any longer, for whatever reason. But I'd put the Bavarian Lodge up against some of the better ones I've encountered in my travels.

I have a dealer in the Oak Brook area in the western suburbs of Chicago and after I finished with our meeting and got ready to head back home to the Quad Cities, I decided to stop for lunch. Not far from my dealer is a place that I've wanted to try for awhile - the Labriola Bakery Cafe. I'd read that this place had a pretty good burger and I thought I'd give it a try.

Rich Labriola grew up in south suburban Blue Island, the son of owners of a south side pizza joint. He was exposed to artisan breads at a young age and he was immediately hooked. French breads, Italian breads, even German breads - Rich didn't know how to bake, but he wanted to learn how to make those artisanal breads he was so fond of.

He studied under experts of the art of baking European-style breads, all the time learning things along the way to put his own signature on his breads. Rich learned that adding an extra step or an extra minute to the baking process set his breads apart from other artisan breads.

Labriola ended up opening his own bakery - Labriola Baking Company - in 1993. He brought in specially designed Italian ovens, aged his own flour, and used only the finest and freshest ingredients in the baking process. His first customer was the Chicago location of Spago, the upscale Italian restaurant owned by Wolfgang Puck. Business grew precipitously for Labriola and he was soon supplying his breads to over 700 restaurants in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin.

Labriola sold his namesake bakery in 2013 four years after he launched his first restaurant in Oak Brook. He opened his second restaurant - a larger one along N. Michigan Ave. in downtown Chicago - in January of this year. Labriola is slated to open a pizza-centric concept restaurant - Pizza Bar - in Oak Brook sometime this month with the help of Chris Macchia, the chef and former owner of Coco Pazzo and The Florentine restaurants. The two are also looking at opening a downtown Chicago Pizza Bar location sometime in 2016.

The Labriola Cafe location in Oak Brook sits in the Oak Brook Promenade along Butterfield Road, just north of I-88/East-West Tollway. (see map) The shopping/restaurant complex is very popular and parking can be a bit of a hassle at times. But I was able to find a spot not far from the Labriola Bakery Cafe when I got there around 1:30 that particular day.

As you come into Labriola Bakery Cafe, you'll find a large case with fresh baked breads, desserts and pastries. It was hard not to linger around the case seeing what they had to offer.

On the other side of the area after you enter is the main cafe part of the place. The menus are located on flat screen televisions above and behind the counter. You place your order at the counter, they give you a number on a table top stand and you go find a seat in the dining area.

There's more than just burgers at the Labriola Bakery Cafe. They're known for their Neapolitan pizzas, as well as sandwiches - hot and cold, pasta dishes and rotisserie chicken. Entrees include a skirt steak dish, chicken parmesan and a pan-seared salmon filet served topped with bruschetta and served on a bed of sautéed spinach.

I'm somewhat of a fan of Kevin Pang, a food, entertainment and pop-culture writer for the Chicago Tribune. He used to host a video blog - The Cheeseburger Show - for a few years where he gave great recommendations for burgers in and around the Chicago area. He once wrote that the Richie Burger at Labriola Bakery Cafe was one of the best in Chicagoland. And that's what I ordered along with a bottle of Warsteiner beer.

The Richie Burger consists of an 8 ounce ground Black Angus beef patty topped with white cheddar cheese, lettuce and tomato. Applewood smoked bacon was an option and I got that, as well. The burger is served on a large pretzel bun. They also have another signature burger at Labriola Bakery Cafe - the Maytag Blue Cheese burger that has, of course, Maytag Blue Cheese, smoked bacon and caramelized onions. Kevin Pang likes that one, as well.

Some pretzel buns can be sort of hard and somewhat dry. That was not the case with this pretzel bun on the Richie Burger. The crown had a nice crusty crunch on the outside of the bun, but was light, airy and spongy on the inside. I'm still a big believer that a great bun makes a great burger. But the the beef patty smothered in the white cheddar cheese was also a delicious component to the Richie Burger. Cooked to a perfect medium with a hint of pink in the middle, the burger was juicy and very flavorful, especially with the white cheddar cheese. The smoked bacon was a nice complement, the lettuce was fresh and crisp - not limp at all, and the tomato slice was very red and very fresh. Much more fresh than what I would have expected for a tomato that early in the season.

I've gotten a lot of great ideas for burger places to try in the Chicago area from Kevin Pang over the years and he didn't steer me wrong on the burger at the Labriola Bakery Cafe. It was a little expensive - nearing $14 with the bacon - but the taste and quality of the bun and beef shined above all else. Labriola Bakery Cafe is a comfortable place for a nice lunch when you're in the Oak Brook area for shopping. Simply put, the Richie Burger was outstanding.

In a small strip mall near the hotel I like to stay at when I'm in Chicago are three restaurants that are side-by-side-by-side. I've eaten at two of them - Maharaja, one of my favorite Indian restaurants (click here to see my entry on Maharaja); and a pretty good little Mexican restaurant by the name of Laredo's Embassy of Mexican Food (click here to see my entry on Laredo's). The third restaurant - Romano's Restaurant - is a family owned Italian/pizza joint that has been around for 65 years, but not at this location. I thought I'd give this place a try one evening earlier this year.

Charles and Sophie Romano opened the original Romano's - known as Charles Romano's to the locals - in 1950 in a building on E. Oakton St. in Des Plaines. It was said the pizza joint was the hang out of Hillary Rodham (now Hillary Clinton) and Harrison Ford when they were both going to high school in nearby Park Ridge. Burt Reynolds and Dinah Shore visited Romano's in the 1970's when that couple were an item. It wasn't just the thin-crust pizza is what brought people back for generations, it was the neighborhood feel to the place that time hadn't touched since the 1950's.

Charles and Sophie's three sons - Joe, Paul and Chuck - all worked in the business growing up, but Chuck was the one who took over the family business when Charles died in 1989. Chuck Romano owned the business until around 2008 when he sold it to longtime employee Tom Sitarski. In 2010, the IRS had a lien filed on the business and Romano's was forced to close to get their finances in order. After selling the building and most of the contents to help pay against the lien, Sitarski quietly re-opened Romano's in a strip mall along W. Higgins Road in Rosemont in 2012. (See map)

If they were trying to replicate the original Charles Romano's location in the new Romano's in the strip mall, well, they had to fall short. No matter how timeless and well-worn the old place may have been, they couldn't replicate that interior in the Romano's on W. Higgins. It was dark - all the pictures I took of the interior didn't come out - but had sort of a homey feeling to the place.

I took a seat in a booth along the wall and was given a menu by a waitress who came over to greet me. I ordered up a beer and took a look through the menu. I've read where some regulars of the old Charles Romano's didn't even know there was a menu with other food items on it. All they did was order pizza each time they came in. But Romano's features a number of pasta dishes, sandwiches, Italian appetizers, and a number of salads on the menu. They also have chicken dishes such as chicken parmesan and chicken marsala, as well as ribs and fried shrimp on the menu.

The pizzas at Romano's are all thin crust and come in five sizes from a 10" individual pizza up to a 20" pizza for groups of 4 or more. I pulled a rookie mistake and ordered a small pizza thinking that it was a 10", but it came out as a 12" pizza. I didn't order the "individual" pizza which was the 10" size. That was all right. What I didn't eat I could take back to the hotel.

The pizza was sort of misshapen and looked handmade. Generous amounts of mozzarella, sliced fresh mushrooms, large slices of pepperoni and and chunks of Italian sausage topped the crispy thin crust. From the first bite, I could tell Romano's pizza was a little different from other thin crust pizzas I've had in the past.

The sauce was sweet and tangy, but cheese seemed to be a little more creamy than what I was used to. It says that they use mozzarella on their menu, but I thought that the cheese on the Romano's pizza seemed to be more of a blend. Sort of like it had provolone or even St. Louis-style provel cheese mixed in. At first I didn't think I cared for it all that much, but I found that it wasn't offensive in the taste.

The crust also had sort of a strange texture. I can't quite put my finger on what it was, but the crust was crispy, yet pliable at the same time. It had a slight burnt taste from the oven, but overall the crust was fine. I prefer a good thin crust versus a thicker hand-tossed crust.

After thinking about the pizza after the fact, I determined that I liked it enough that I could always go back if I were staying around O'Hare and needed a quick thin crust pizza fix. The pizza at Romano's was unique and I can see why some people still send frozen Romano pizza's to friends and family around the nation. I really wish I would have been able to go to the original Romano's in Des Plaines, from all that I read about the place and from the pictures I've seen the place had character. It's tough to make a strip mall space have character. But you'll find Romano's in Rosemont to be inviting enough with the same style of pizza they've been serving for 65 years.

I was in Chicago for a weekend trade show earlier this year and I invited one of my dealers out for dinner on a Saturday night. I suggested a place that I'd known about for awhile, but hadn't been to - L. Woods Tap and Pine Lodge.

L. Woods Tap and Pine Lodge is modeled after a Northwoods supper club/steakhouse. And I was a bit surprised that it was under the Lettuce Entertain You umbrella of restaurants that restaurateur-extraordanaire Rich Melman has built up mainly in the Chicago area (along with restaurants in Las Vegas, Washington D.C., the Twin Cities, and Scottsdale, AZ). I realized that this was a Melman/L.E.Y. restaurant was when we walked in and saw a comical sign on the hostess stand that said something along the lines of "Rich Melman said to seat me right away." While I wasn't crestfallen that this was another Melman place, I knew that the place would be nice and comfortable - albeit a little whimsical and formulated - but it wouldn't be excellent. I've never run into a Melman/L.E.Y. restaurant that has been what I would call excellent. But there's so many of them that I probably haven't been to even half of the Lettuce Entertain You restaurants over the years.

And it's a wonder that I didn't know that L. Woods was a Melman/L.E.Y. restaurant - it's been open for over 16 years near the corner of N. Lincoln Ave. and W. Touhy in Lincolnwood. (see map) Before L. Woods opened, the building housed another Melman restaurant - Bones - that primarily featured ribs and chicken. Bones had been in business for about 20 years before Melman retooled the place and opened L. Woods in late 1998.

We stood in the crowded and very nice bar area - known as Frank's Bar - waiting for a moment until they could get our table set up. The dark lit room was brightened only by some reduced-light can lights and from the flat panel televisions behind the bar. When our table was ready, the hostess guided us through the main dining area - a long room with wood accents and decorated with deer antler lights and framed pictures of old scenes and trophy fish from Northern Wisconsin/Minnesota. We were taken into a small back room that was possibly used as a small meeting/luncheon area most of the time except for when it got busy on the weekends. We were given menus and it wasn't long before our server, Jason, came over to greet us.

After Jason took our drink order, he came back with a complementary taste of their tomato pesto and chicken flat bread pizza appetizer. And it was all right - I wouldn't have ordered it as an appetizer. But as a little tease for their flat bread appetizers, it was fine.

The main items on the menu were steaks and seafood - exactly as you find on most Northwoods supper club menus. It wasn't a long menu at L. Woods - they only featured about four or five each of seafood or steak entrees. Continuing the tradition that started with Bones in the 70's, L. Woods also had chicken and rib dinners, as well. They also featured soups and salads, and sandwiches and burgers on the dinner menu.

After ordering soup for our starters - a good, but somewhat salty mushroom beef barley for me and tomato bisque for my guest that came with a small loaf of a wonderful house-baked onion bread - we were served our dinners for the evening. I went with the Saturday night special, the prime rib. I got the 16 ounce cut and asked Jason if they could find as rare of a cut as possibly. This was more medium rare, but that was fine with me. It was actually pretty lean as far as prime rib goes with not much marbling. A side came with it and I got the garlic mashed potatoes. It also came with creamy horseradish sauce and I asked if I could get some real ground horseradish. Jason brought some out, but it was pretty pedestrian in taste compared to other fresh horseradishes that I've had.

My guest went with the ribs and chicken combo. I didn't want to say that I didn't think the chicken and ribs would be good when he ordered, but he pretty much said that the ribs were dry and the chicken was pretty bland. He got some broccoli on the side and the crowns were mushy and overcooked. He didn't think much of his dinner, disappointed that the ribs were overcooked and the chicken was just so-so.

I was happy enough with my prime rib. The cut of meat was flavorful and juicy. It had been a long time since I'd gotten prime rib, but this piece of meat told me that I shouldn't wait too long for the next time. It was well above average for a piece of prime rib. The garlic mashed potatoes were just all right - there didn't seem to be much garlic in them. But I was much more focused on the prime rib than the garlic mashed potatoes.

Even though my guest was less than thrilled with his ribs and chicken, I was happy enough with my prime rib. Jason's service was all right - he seemed a little forced with some of his mannerisms. The atmosphere was laid back and the decor was comfortable. Even though L. Woods is a Lettuce Entertain You concept restaurant it did it's best to capture the essence of a Northwoods supper club - only one that is smack in the middle of Chicagoland. (Photo courtesy of Check, Please! on WTTW-TV)

I'd had my eye on a German restaurant in the far northwest suburbs of Chicago for awhile, Bauer's Brauhaus in Palatine. I decided to go find the place a few weeks ago when I was in the area and headed over to what would be called Palatine's downtown area just off Palatine Road. When I pulled up in front of what I thought would be Bauer's Brauhaus, I found that it was now called Schnell's Brauhaus. Hmmm... OK, I was a little confused, but I still went in to give the place a try.

I was sort of intrigued by some of the things I'd read about Bauer's Brauhaus - Chef Jason Bauer had opened the restaurant in early 2012 along with his father, Bob, and his aunt and uncle, Judy and Gene Bauer. The Bauer's could trace their family lineage back to Ulm, Germany and Jason Bauer specifically wanted to offer old world German dishes in the new restaurant (which also happened to previously house a German restaurant).

Bob and Gene Bauer had worked with their father in a family-owned body shop before their father sold the business a number of years ago. The brothers decided to do something completely different and they got into the bar and grille business. Jason attended culinary school and ended up working for a time at the heralded Vie restaurant in suburban Western Springs before joining his family in their German restaurant in Palatine. His original general manager, Carl Maier, had most of his family still over in Germany.

However, I found out during research on Schnell's Brauhaus that the Bauer's unexpectedly closed their restaurant in December of last year. Two brothers - Joel and Brian Schnell, who are the owners of The Donkey Inn in Palatine - leased the building and decided to keep the place as a German restaurant. They reportedly hired an Austrian chef as a menu consultant and the restaurant reopened in early February under the name of Schnell's Brauhaus.

Schnell's Brauhaus is located on Slade Ave. in downtown Palatine in the midst of a number of restaurants in the area. (see map) The dimly lit restaurant (none of the pictures I took of the interior turned out) featured traditional German decor with a bit of modern world technology mixed in. Flat screen televisions on the walls behind the antique bar and all around the restaurant made it sort of look like a Bavarian sports bar.

I sat at the bar and was greeted by a bartender - Carly - who asked me if I needed a menu and something to drink. I ordered up a stein of Spaten while I looked through the menu to see what they offered.

Quite actually, the menu was very disappointing. I expected more choices of German food, but most of the menu consisted of appetizers, burgers and sandwiches. The only "true" German items on the menu were a sausage platter that they designated as their "specialty", beef goulash, and pork, veal or chicken schnitzel dishes (with or without a fried egg on top). And that was it. I sort of did a mental "eenie-meenie-minie-moe" between the wiener schnitzel and the beef goulash before I decided to order up the goulash.

As I was waiting for my food to come, the rather quite and laid-back atmosphere of the place was tremendously disrupted as a party of about 8 or 9 people came in and took over the end of the bar. From their loud and boisterous conversations, it appeared that all of them were back home for the funeral of a friend and were rather inebriated by this time of the evening. I'm sure they were having fun, but I wanted something a little more quiet this particular evening.

Not long after I ordered, Carly brought my beef goulash to me. This was a little different from any goulash I've been served in previous visits to German restaurants - the braised beef tips were served with the spatzle on the side and not as a bed for the beef and the sauce.

The beef tips were large and were cut-able with a fork - barely. They were overcooked and dry in taste on their own. The spatzle, too, seemed to be overcooked and rubbery in their composition. The only redeeming factor in the whole meal was the gravy sauce - it had a great complexity of tastes and helped with the overall taste of what was pretty disappointing beef tips and spatzle.

I guess I was expecting a lot more out of a place that called themselves a German restaurant. While Carly's service was nice, and the atmosphere was relaxed (save for the boisterous group that came in), both the quality of the food and the lack of more choices of German food on the menu were lacking. Schnell's Brauhaus is more of a sports bar and grill than a true German restaurant.

The night before we flew to San Diego for our Southern California vacation, my wife and I stayed near O'Hare Airport as we had a very early morning flight (as in 5:30 a.m.). We decided to go find a place for some Italian food and I came across Giacomo's Ristorante Italian in suburban Des Plaines.

The Giacomo behind Giacomo's Ristorante is Sicilian-born Giacomo "Jack" Zito who bought what was already an Italian restaurant in 1998. Along with his wife, Anna Marie, and their daughter, Amanda, Zito transformed his restaurant into a "casually-elegant" old world-Italian restaurant serving southern Italian homemade-style meals with an old country flair.

Pictured right - Amanda, Giacomo and Anna Marie Zito.

Giacomo's Ristorante has had a nice following in the Northwest Suburbs over the years, but in recent times they've been featured on a number of local television programs in Chicago as one of the best kept culinary secrets. It was a review from WGN-TV's "Chicago's Best" program that brought us to Giacomo's Ristorante.

Giacomo's is located on N. Wolf Road, just north of E. Central Ave. in Des Plaines. (see map) In fact, it's just up the road a bit from one of my favorite pizza places on the northwest side of Chicago, Bob Mele's Little Villa. (Click here to see the entry on Bob Mele's Little Villa.) We'd called ahead to make sure that we could get in on a Saturday night and we were told we could be seated at 7:30 p.m.

We were seated in the main dining room, a long and somewhat narrow area that featured linen-clad tables topped with butcher paper. We were told that the original building was a Dog and Suds drive-in restaurant from back in the 60's. We were given dinner menus and our server for the evening, a pleasant lady by the name of Linda, came over to greet us.

Looking through the menu, we found a number of interesting and delectable items to choose from. Pasta is made fresh daily in Giacomo's kitchen, they also feature chicken and veal dishes, a number of seafood pasta dishes, beef and seafood entrees, and a number of appetizers. Giacomo's also allows you to create your own pasta dishes choosing from seven different types of house-made pastas, adding your choice of one of 10 different types of sauces, as well as adding meatballs or Italian sausage to the dish if you like.

When we ordered dinner, I also got a bottle of the Bertani Due Uve, an Italian white wine blend (pinot grigio/sauvignon blanc) that was on Giacomo's wine list. It was reasonably priced at $32 bucks and had a wonderful taste on it's own that was heightened with the flavors from our food.

Linda brought back a basket full of fresh baked bread to go along with the dinner salads we had before our main entrees were served. The bread was warm and soft with ample amounts of sesame seeds on the crust. Dipped in some olive oil and parmesan cheese, it was sensational in taste.

I ordered the lobster ravioli with sautéed shrimp in a vodka tomato cream sauce. I almost went with a veal dish, and I was being pulled toward the shrimp, scallops and marinated portobello mushrooms in a white wine sauce over risotto, as well. But at the last moment I steered myself toward the lobster ravioli. And I was glad I did. The large, pillowy ravioli was filled with fresh lobster and accompanied by large grilled shrimp. The slightly spicy vodka tomato cream sauce actually went well with the ravioli and shrimp - I usually don't like a tomato-based sauce with seafood. But Giacomo's pulled it off very well.

Cindy went with the veal picante entree that I heavily considered getting - tender slices of veal medallions in a lemon/butter/white wine sauce and topped with capers. She gave me a bite of the veal and it was exquisite. Tender and flavorful, for a second I thought that I had possibly ordered the wrong thing. But I was very happy with the lobster ravioli.

She also asked for a side of fettuccine alfredo to go with her meal. Wide pasta noodles in a heavy cream sauce made up the fettuccine alfredo at Giacomo's. The cream sauce was nearly decadent with its rich taste. I had a couple three bites of it, but decided that I liked the lobster ravioli better.

After we finished most - but not all of our dinners (it was all so damned rich and oh, so good!) - Linda came back with the dessert menu for us. Cindy asked if the tiramisu was house-made. "Every day," was Linda's immediate response. Cindy ordered up a piece with two forks. I sort of groaned when she ordered it, but after the first bite I was glad she did.

The tiramisu at Giacomo's Ristorante had that exquisite full-bodied, mixed with a light taste that good tiramisu has. There were four or five different tastes going on with the tiramisu that it was difficult to pick out what was what between the soaked lady fingers and the whipped mocha flavored cream in the dessert. It was a wonderful ending to what was a fine meal.

Our visit to Giacomo's Ristorante Italiano was a very pleasant experience. The food was way above average, the menu was adventurous and somewhat unique, Linda's service was very good, and we were comfortable in the dining room. For being in business for 17 years, Giacomo's may still be a well-kept secret to many. But I'd highly recommend a trip to Giacomo's for some highly respectable, very good old-world Southern Italian cooking.

I met one of my dealers for lunch at Two Brothers Tap House on a recent trip into Chicago. I had tried to go to Two Brothers on a couple of other occasions - one time I couldn't find the place, then the next time I went during the day when they weren't open. They're open for lunch Friday thru Sunday and it was a Friday early afternoon when I met up with my dealer for lunch and a couple of beers.

Two Brothers Brewing Company is one of the older brewing companies in the greater Chicago area. Brothers (of course) Jim and Jason Ebel founded the brewery in 1996. But before that, the two brothers spent a lot of time in Europe where the fell in love with the diverse tastes in European beers. Coming back to the states, they soon found that they couldn't find the same quality of beers on a regular basis.

The Ebels decided to go into business together selling ingredients and equipment for home brewers and wine makers. The Brewer's Coop opened in Naperville in 1992. But their plan was to someday open a brewpub.

Pictured right - Jason (left) and Jim Ebel (right)

Jason went away to Colorado to get his feet wet, so to speak, in breweries there and Jim was accepted to the DePaul University College of Law. Jim kept The Brewer's Coop open with the help of family members, and when it got really busy Jason moved back to help out and to work in brewpubs in the area.

When the brothers would get together they'd invariably talk about different types of beers. It finally got so bad that their mother said that they had better just go out and open a brewpub because all the talk about beer was driving her crazy. The brothers took that as a sign and began to plan to open their brewery.

Jim and Jason figured that with limited financial backing and absolutely no background in the restaurant business that they'd open a production brewery instead. Jason was the brother who ended up going to brewing school and he enrolled in the master brewers program at Chicago's prestigious Siebel Institute of Technology. After Jason graduated in S.I.T. and Jim graduated from DePaul Law School, the two brothers came up with a business plan for their brewery.

After gathering modest financing from family members and a couple banks, the two brothers bought a 15 barrel system that was designed by Jason as a copy of the traditional 3-vessel breweries in Germany and made for them by a company in Vancouver, B.C. For much of the other equipment they needed for the brewery, most of it was donated. It turned out their grandfather was a retired dairy farmer who still had bulk milk tanks that were quickly turned into fermenting tanks. Cream tanks became aging tanks. Within months of getting up and going, the Two Brothers Brewing Company sold their first keg of beer in March of 1997.

Starting out as a draft only brewery, they were able to procure an 8-head bottling line in 1998 that would do up to 16 bottles per minute. Business grew quickly thanks to their own beer distribution company - Windy City Distributors - the brothers used to ship their craft beer (and others) to bars and liquor stores in Illinois and Wisconsin. They replaced their 8-head bottling line was an upscale 20-head machine that was able to do up to 150 bottles per minute. They moved into a new building - a 40,000 sq. foot facility in suburban Warrenville - in 2007. It didn't take them any more than five months before they figured out that that building was too small and they had to expand again. Multiple expansions and the sale of Windy City Distribution in 2012 have brought the brothers up to the present day as they continue to run the brewery as a family-owned entity.

When they moved to the Warrenville location, they moved their retail beer and wine making operation to the new facility. They eventually put in a brew pub - the Two Brother Tap House. In 2011, the brothers bought the historic Roundhouse in nearby Aurora, IL. The Roundhouse - which started out as a rail yard roundhouse in the mid-1800's - had sat empty for over 20 years before a group of investors that included former Chicago BearWalter Payton bought the building and converted it to a brewpub, museum and open air pavilion. That place eventually went out of business after Payton's death and the Ebel's re-opened the Two Brothers Roundhouse as a combination brewery, artisan bakery/cafe (by day), a brewpub (at night) and as a banquet/reception facility. (Picture courtesy George Kite.)

(Earlier this year, the brothers opened a Two Brothers Tap House in Scottsdale, AZ on Scottsdale Road. They also formed their own distribution company - Arizona Beer and Cider - to distribute their beer, along with beer from other small breweries that weren't not available in Arizona until now. Today, Two Brothers beer is distributed in a dozen states, primarily in the Midwest and Southwest.)

As I said, I couldn't find the Two Brothers Tap House the first time I went there. It's tucked back in an industrial park near the intersection of Butterfield Road and Illinois Highway 59 in Warrenville. (see map) When I did finally find it - and found that the brewpub wasn't open during the day four Monday thru Thursday - there wasn't any significant signage on the building to show that there even was a brewpub on the property. There's a door nearly in the middle of the north side of the two story building with a simple sign that says "Tap House Main Entrance". That actually takes you into The Brewer's Coop. A right turn takes you into the Two Brothers Tap House.

The Tap House dining area has sort of a contemporary industrial look with earth-tone colors on the walls. On weekends, they'll have a musician or a small combo play music in the dining area. There's an outdoor patio on the far side of the dining area.

I found my dealer at the bar that's off to the left side of the dining area and he already had a Two Brothers Wobble IPA in front of him. I sat down next to him and a bartender dropped off a couple menus for us. I ordered up a Wobble IPA, as well, and we discussed some business for awhile before we finally figured out what to get for lunch.

It's an interesting menu at Two Brothers Tap House. Much of the food they serve are sourced locally from organic farms and many of the herbs they used in the kitchen are grown on the roof of the brewery. They have a number of appetizers that include a smoked salmon dip that sounded pretty damn good. They had salsa verde nachos that you could add pork, chicken or beef to for $2 bucks more. But my dealer had already ordered up a fried pickle appetizer before I got there featuring locally grown pickles dipped in a housemade beer batter featuring their Cane and Ebel (get it?) red rye ale and deep fried. They were actually very good.

I was looking at a couple things - the Tap House Burger featured organically grown beef from CDK Farms in extreme northwestern Illinois, ground, pattied and grilled, then topped with cheddar cheese, fresh roasted jalapeños and a red pepper mayo; and the Brewer's Reuben made with naturally-raised, slow-cooked beef brisket, topped with sauerkraut, Swiss cheese, 1000 Island dressing and served on marble rye bread.

Then something caught my eye toward the bottom of the menu listed under "Tap House Specialties" - the fish tacos. The fish was sustainably-raised west coast Dover sole filets with soy-marinated cabbage, mixed shredded cheese, pico de gallo and a buttermilk ranch dressing on two flour tacos. As soon as our bartender came and asked if we were ready to order, I said, "I was going toward the reuben, but then I saw the fish tacos."

"We're pretty well known for our fish tacos," the bartender replied in an assured manner. My dealer said that he had his eyes on the fish tacos, as well, and ordered those, as well.

And we were happy we did. The dover sole filets were lightly battered - I'd rather that they just grilled them - but the batter wasn't obtrusive to the taste. The marinated cabbage was a nice touch and thankfully they don't put a lot of the mixed shredded cheese on the tacos that can overpower the overall taste of the fish and other toppings. The flour tortilla shells were sort of crispy, but held together well with each bite. The taste of the tacos was very good. I added some of the rice and some of the black beans - not the mushy black beans you get at most Americanized Mexican restaurants, but the real ones that have a little snap when you bite into them. That helped give the tacos a bit more of a complex taste.

I've never been a huge fans of Two Brothers beers. I mean, they're fine and everything. Some of the beers that I've had are sometimes a little too complex for my tastebuds. But I really enjoyed the Wobble IPA. In fact, I've since gone to Binny's and picked up a couple six packs of the Wobble to take home as I can't seem to find Two Brothers beer in the Iowa Quad Cities. It's a good beer.

Other than it's sort of tough to find and then when you get there you don't exactly know where the entrance to the Tap House really is, the fish tacos that I had at Two Brothers were above average. And I enjoyed the Wobble IPA enough to buy some at a Binny's later on. They have an interesting menu and a good variety of beers to choose from. Difficult to find, but worth the trip - that's Two Brothers Tap House in Warrenville.

Less than a mile from one of my dealers in the north suburbs of Chicago is a deli that I've been wanting to go to since I was told that they have tremendously great pastrami on rye sandwiches. However, when I went to get a sandwich there about three years ago, I found that they were closed due to a fire. They reopened in the fall of 2012 and I finally made it there to try one of their sandwiches on a recent trip to Chicago.

Kaufman's Deli has been around for 60 years and the story of survival, perseverance, setbacks and success among the two families who have owned the place is worth telling. Maury Kaufman survived the Holocaust and concentration camps of Nazi Germany during World War II before emigrating to the U.S. in the late 40's. He ended up in the Jewish neighborhoods of Skokie and opened up a small bagel shop that immediately garnered acclaim for their taste and quality. Kaufman's Deli grew into a traditional Jewish deli and thrived for years before Maury Kaufman sold the place in 1984.

Arnold Dworkin grew up as a baker's son in Chicago. As a young boy, he would gather up bread crumbs, bag and weigh them. After graduating high school, he got his undergraduate degree then got his law degree fulfilling his father's wish that the young Dworkin do something other than working in a bakery. Arnold Dworkin worked as a legal aid in the army, but it turned out that baking was in his blood and he returned to the family business coming out of the service instead of practicing law. The rye bread made in his family's Imperial Baking Co. was said to be the best in all of Chicago in the late 60's and early 70's.

When Arnold Dworkin bought Kaufman's in 1984, he had his wife Judy and his daughter Bette helping him out in the kitchen. Almost as soon as they got things up and going, a salmonella outbreak that was linked to corned beef at Kaufman's sickened 250 people. Not long after, a second, but smaller salmonella outbreak that was linked to Kaufman's caused Dworkin to shut down the deli and do a thorough cleaning while replacing most of the equipment in the restaurant.

Pictured right - Arnold, Bette and Judy Dworkin

The salmonella setback didn't affect the perpetually gregarious and effervescent Arnold Dworkin. Moving past the salmonella scare, the family reopened the business with the Skokie village manager and city health inspector two of the first patrons. A year later Arnold Dworkin was awarded the Skokie Merchant of the Year.

Arnold Dworkin died in December of 2009 and his daughter and wife continue to run the daily operations. However, in 2011 a malfunctioning stove started a fire that severely damaged the delicatessen and forced the Dworkin's to close Kaufman's for nearly one year. This allowed Judy and Bette Dworkin to completely rework the establishment into one large space instead of having the deli on one side of the building and the deli on the other side.

Kaufman's is located just east of the Edens Expressway on Dempster Ave. (see map) There's a parking lot on the east side of the building and there was ample parking as it was after the noontime lunch rush.

Inside Kaufman's, there was a large open space that featured the deli along the east side and the bakery along the south side. A number of tables with chairs were placed in the center of the room. (Moments after I took the above picture, an older lady came out and asked me why I was taking pictures. I'm guessing it was Judy Dworkin. I didn't tell her that I was a blogger, but that I liked to take pictures of neat places I've been to for meals when I'm on the road. She nodded knowingly and went back behind the counter.)

The deli side of the restaurant had a glass counter that was full of nothing but fish - hickory smoked salmon, smoked sturgeon, smoked lake trout and full whitefish. They also had New York-style whitefish salad and Chicago-style whitefish salad - don't ask me the difference between the two.

The bakery had glass counters full of cakes, cookies and pastries. Loaves of bread were lined on shelves behind the counters as were their famous bagels. The bakery was a popular place at Kaufman's with a lot of people milling about in front of the counter looking for baked items. USA Today once named Kaufman's bakery as one of the Top 10 in the United States.

The menu was on the wall behind the deli counter. As I said, I was just there to get a pastrami on rye with some Swiss cheese. But they had pretty much about any type of deli sandwich that you can think of at Kaufman's. They have four different grades of corned beef from extra lean to what they call "regular" corned beef depending upon the dietary restrictions of customers. They also have three different types of pastrami - from in-house smoked veal pastrami to lean pastrami to regular pastrami. I got regular pastrami. Sides include Jewish favorites such as potato pancakes, lentil and knishes, they had over a dozen different types of soup, and they also had full dinners such as sweet and sour meatballs, stuffed cabbage and lamb stew.

The pastrami was sliced lean and piled high on Kaufman's famous rye bread and topped with thick slices of Swiss cheese and a squirt of yellow mustard. It was placed in a paper bag and I went to the opposite side of the deli to pay for it at the register. After I picked up a bottle of water and went to pay for the sandwich, the young lady asked me if I was going to dine in the deli. When I told her that I was, she handed me a small paper plate on which to put my sandwich.

The taste of the pastrami on rye was outstanding - exactly what I was looking for in a great Jewish-style deli sandwich. The meat had a slightly salty taste, but had great texture and flavor. The rye bread was equally outstanding. I'm guessing it's the same rye bread that the Dworkin family has had since the days of the Imperial Baking Co.

I can't believe that it had taken me that long to finally get into Kaufman's for a great pastrami on rye sandwich. The sandwich was simply excellent. There are some other deli's in the northern suburbs I'd like to try, but they'd be hard pressed to equal or surpass the sandwich I had at Kaufman's. Because of it's location, it will probably become my "go-to" deli in the northern suburbs of Chicago.

I had an early morning meeting with a potential dealer who moved into a new location just off Waukegan Rd. in the far northwest suburb of Glenview. There's a number of restaurants up and down Waukegan that I've visited - and there are more that I would like to visit. One of those places is a breakfast place called Jasper's Cafe. After my meeting, I headed to Jasper's Cafe for some breakfast.

Owner Chris Kappa opened Jasper's Cafe in April of 2011. There evidently had been a Jasper's Cafe before, but not at this location. Jasper's Cafe offers breakfast and lunch in a contemporary casual setting.

It was around 9:15 when I got into Jasper's Cafe. (see map) Parking is plentiful in the back of the restaurant. I was greeted by a young woman at the cash register/hostess stand (next to a large orange juicing machine) and shown to a table in the middle of the restaurant. She got me a menu and said my server would be with me momentarily.

The restaurant is comfortable and well lit with a line of windows facing the front of the restaurant. Large booths with cloth padding line the wall along the windows. Sturdy wooden tables and chairs are interspersed in the main dining room. In the back of Jasper's Cafe, they feature a room for breakfast or lunch meetings or for large groups.

The menu for breakfast consisted of a number of egg skillet dishes, omelets, French toast, regular and oven baked pancakes and crepes. The lunch part of the menu was filled with burgers, sandwiches, salads, soups, and wraps. They have an espresso bar at Jasper's Cafe and I started off with a double espresso to get me going after getting up so early for the meeting.

I ended up ordering the blueberry crepes with a side of bacon for my breakfast. I was sort of disheartened to see that it was served with blueberry compote as some that I've had in the past were basically nothing more than pie filling. But the compote was actually very good - sweet with a hint of a lemon taste and a very forward blueberry flavor. The blueberry compote was on both the top of the crepes and folded inside. The crepes were light with a bit of a crispy texture. I'll have to say they were outstanding crepes.

The bacon was also pretty good. I'm not big on crispy bacon, but the bacon served at Jasper's Cafe was thick and they gave me four slices with breakfast. Overall, this was a very good breakfast.

The service at Jasper's Cafe was efficient and it didn't take long for the food to get to me. They have an extensive menu for breakfast items and although the baked pancakes were somewhat intriguing, I was more than happy with my blueberry crepes. They're open until 3:30 p.m. daily, so get there early and enjoy the food at Jasper's Cafe.

I was calling on an account in the far northwestern suburbs of Chicago on a recent visit there and it was past 7 p.m. when I left the dealer. I was making my way back toward my hotel when I passed a place on Algonquin Road in Arlington Heights (see map) that piqued my interest. I took a turn and headed back to try a place by the name of the Rack House.

With a name like the Rack House, I figured that it was probably a barbecue joint. I was partially correct - they do feature smoked meats in the restaurant. But the focus of the sports bar/restaurant centers upon the number of food items they serve that are flavored with bourbon. A "rackhouse" (also known as a "rickhouse") is a building where aging barrels are stored in whiskey making operations. The Rack House has a long drink list that features "moonshine" drinks, bourbons, Irish whiskey, and single malt Scotch.

But they also have an in-house Southern Pride smoker that allows them to smoke ribs, brisket, pork butt, chicken and sausage. They also smoke chicken wings and salmon in the larger smoker. The Rack House uses hard woods to smoke the meats allowing for a "low and slow" cooking technique.

The Rack House opened in March of 2013 in what was a former Boston Blackie's location. When the father-son owners of Boston Blackie's were indicted on a nearly $2 million bank fraud scheme in 2010, all of their Chicago-area restaurants closed up. Partners Luke Johnson - who owned the LM Bistro in the trendy River North area of Chicago - and Matt Lewandowski - who owned the Trademark Tavern in Lombard - bought the building and renovated it into the Rack House. They closed their respective eateries and concentrated on their new venture in Arlington Heights.

It was around 7:30 when I got into the restaurant. I was greeted by a hostess who asked if I wanted to eat in the bar area - filled with a lot of flat screen televisions and a lot of people - or in the dining room which was a little more laid back and rather quiet. I went with the dining room. And I'm glad I did. I was escorted to a dining area that featured a gas fire place with a large flat screen television above the hearth that was tuned to a basketball game. The hostess dropped off a menu and soon thereafter my server for the evening, Rachel, came to take my drink order. I got a Lagunitas IPA, one of nearly two dozen beers they feature on tap It was served to me in a pint-sized Mason jar.

In addition to the barbecue items on the menu, the Rack House also features the normal sports bar/restaurant appetizers, a number of burgers, salads and wraps, and a number of sandwiches. They also had a handful of entrees that included a ginger/soy-marinated skirt steak, apple cider-glazed pork chops, and a smoked beer-can chicken (available on a limited basis).

I was leaning toward getting the "Over Easy" burger which consists of a burger patty topped with Swiss and cheddar cheese, strips of bacon, caramelized onions, a fried egg and finished with a whiskey BBQ sauce. But I had been getting burnt out on burgers up to that point and I thought I needed something else.

That's when I saw that they had grilled fish tacos. I'm a sucker for good grilled fish tacos (you know that if you're a regular reader of Road Tips) and the ones at the Rack House seemed promising. The fish was seasoned with a blackening spice, then topped with shredded pepper jack cheese, garlic aioli sauce, and shredded cabbage and served in three soft flour taco shells. A medley of tortilla chips came on the side, but those were mainly throw-aways - the fish tacos were actually pretty damned good. The blackened seasoning gave the tacos a bit of a bite, but the garlic aioli was a great touch. I usually make my fish tacos at home with a chipotle/mayo sauce that really gives it a bite. But the garlic aioli may have turned my head in a different direction. It was far from a heavy meal - something that I didn't need that evening. It was simply a spot hitter.

For taking a chance on a place that I just happened to spy as I was driving by, I can't say that I was disappointed in the Rack House. Far from it - I liked the laid-back and welcoming atmosphere, Rachel's service was professional and efficient, and the blackened grilled fish tacos were very good. I wasn't full, nor was I hungry after I finished my meal. I would like to get back to try some of their barbecue at some point. But for what I had this particular evening, I was very happy with what I got. (Picture courtesy The Daily Herald)

It had been a long day for me while calling on accounts in the Chicago area recently. I was heading back out to my hotel in Addison and decided to let my GPS figure out where to go have dinner that evening. I found an Indian/Pakistani restaurant by the name of Shahi Nihari that wasn't far away from where I was at. I decided to give them a try for dinner that night.

Actually, I should clarify Shahi Nihari as a Pakistani/Indian restaurant with much more of an emphasis on Pakistani cuisine. They're also known as Hot N Spicy to many people, as well. Owner/CEO Anwar Gazi was born and raised in Pakistan and moved to the U.S. a number of years ago. About 9 years ago Gazi opened Shahi Nihari to cater to a growing Muslim population in the western suburbs of Chicago. At one point they had three locations including one in Lombard, but they closed that up and moved just down the road to a larger location in Villa Park a couple three years ago. They also used to have a location in Schaumburg, but they now have a location on Golf Road in Morton Grove.

Shahi Nihari is located on North Ave. in Villa Park almost right on the borders of where Lombard, Addison and Villa Park all meet up. (see map) I went in and was greeted by a pleasant man who showed me to a table in their dining room. There is a larger banquet room off to the side of the main dining area.

When I got into the menu I knew that I was far from an Indian restaurant. First of all, there was beef on the menu. Secondly, there was very little on the menu that remotely looked like it was Indian food. They had beef and chicken kabobs, a number of sandwiches, and a number of entrees that included lamb including daal gosht and palak gosht. They even had a brain masala on the menu. Uh, no thanks.

While I was looking through the menu trying to make heads or tails of what I was getting into, a waiter brought over a plate of sliced cucumbers and onions with a lime wedge on the plate. A cucumber sauce as well as a brown sauce came with the plate. Now, I didn't have the faintest idea what or why this was placed in front of me. I don't care for raw cucumbers all that much (although my wife makes a great cucumber/onion salad in a mayo cream sauce), and I don't know why there would be raw onion slices as an appetizer. I was on my own on this one, but willing to broaden my culinary horizons. Actually, the cucumber sauce - what I thought would be sort of cool and refreshing - was pretty spicy. I'm guessing the green specs in the sauce were quite possibly pureed jalapenos. And the brown sauce - what I guessed to be the spicy of the two - was actually pretty mild.

The other thing that I found out at Shahi Nihari, they didn't have beer. No Kingfisher, no Taj Mahal, not even a Bud Light. Hmmm... OK. Well, I guess I'm not gonna get a beer to cut the spicy taste in my mouth.

At a table next to me, there were two couples - one with a small child. One of the couples were regulars at Shahi Nihari and looked to be of Southern Asian descent. They were telling the other couple that this place had the most authentic Pakistani food in Chicago. I silently wished that they would give me some pointers on what to order.

I ended up getting their namesake dish, the Shahi Nihari - it's basically shredded beef served in a spicy curry gravy. I also ordered some garlic naan - one of the few things I recognized on the menu.

The Shahi Nihari was served in a large square bowl and that was it. No rice or anything else to go with it. There was a very shallow layer of grease on the top of the curry gravy sauce. There wasn't a lot of beef in the dish.

The curry gravy wasn't all that spicy - at least to me. The beef was tender and pulled apart very easily. But I couldn't get over the layer of grease that had coagulated at the top. I would stir it up and within a couple minute the layer of grease would reappear. I wasn't really certain I liked the Shahi Nihari or not.

What I did like was the garlic naan. It was thicker than most naan breads that I've had at Indian restaurants and it was loaded with garlic. I used some of the garlic naan to dip into the curry gravy, as well as into the spicy cucumber sauce. All the time I was thinking that a beer would really be nice with this meal.

For going into Shahi Nihari as a complete neophyte of true Pakistani cuisine, I guess I was impressed enough to learn more about what they had to offer and to possibly get back there to try something else. The Shahi Nihari entree was fine, but it was basically over in six bites. There was a lot of the curry gravy left over and I would have liked to have a little rice to go along with it so it wouldn't have gone to waste. Would I eat there again? Sure! But I'd probably go for one of the lamb dishes the next time.

The Hofbrauhaus in Munich may be one of the most famous - if not THE most famous - beer hall/restaurants/breweries in the world. Hoping to capitalize on the success of the first Hofbrauhaus-franchised brauhaus in Hong Kong, an American franchise office opened in Frankenmuth, MI in 1997 with the first American Hofbrauhaus opening six years later in Newport, KY, just across the river from Cincinnati. In 2012, a large 20,000 square foot Hofbrauhaus opened in Rosemont's MB Financial Park entertainment district in the Chicago suburb of Rosemont, near O'Hare Airport. I had lunch at the Hofbrauhaus Chicago in Rosemont on a recent visit to the area.

Now, I had tried to go to the Hofbrauhaus Chicago in Rosemont three times before. The first time I was with my colleague John after we had been setting up for a trade show at a nearby hotel. It was late, we were tired, we were burned out from setting up a sound system and wanted a nice meal and some peace and quiet. You don't get peace and quiet at night at the Hofbrauhaus Chicago, which is billed as the only brewpub/restaurant/beer hall/beer garden in the Chicago area. They have live music each night in the beer hall and that particular night it was LOUD!!! We ended up going some place else.

Two other times I tried to go, once the power was out at the place and it was closed, the other time the entrance was so packed with people waiting to get a seat that I decided to bag that opportunity. This time, I had a couple of appointments in the morning and had a chance to stop for lunch at the Hofbrauhaus Chicago since it was close to my hotel in Rosemont.

I was able to get right in on this visit as it was past the noon lunch rush and well before any of the nighttime festivities would start. The large beer hall had only a handful of people eating in the place when I first got there. The beer hall at Hofbrauhaus Chicago is an exact replica of the original Hofbrauhaus in Munich down to the murals on the ceiling and the large tables for communal seating.

I ended up taking a seat at the bar along the south side of the beer hall. Behind the windows behind the back bar, large beer kettles were present. The Hofbrau Beers served at the Hofbrauhaus Chicago are made with the original recipe handed down over 400 years ago by Wilhelm V, the Duke of Bavaria. Ben Zollenkopf, a native of Bavaria and who was the technical director for international brewing at Hofbrauhaus in Munich, oversees the brewing process at the Hofbrauhaus Chicago.

The waitstaff are dressed in traditional costumes and a couple young ladies were working behind the bar that particular day. One of them came over to greet me, dropped off a menu and took my beer order. I got a big-assed mug of the Hofbrau original lager.

The lunch menu is a truncated version of the dinner menu served at Hofbrauhaus Chicago. It features German specialties including sausage platters, weinerschnitzel, and Bavarian-style goulash. They also have burgers - including a German-style burger mixed with ground pork and ground beef - and sandwiches that include a Bavarian-style bratwurst, a chicken schnitzel sandwich, and a Braten Semmel - a roast pork sandwich served on a toasted pretzel bun.

This time, I went with the jagerschnitzel - a pork cutlet that was topped with a mushroom gravy, along with a couple strips of bacon and crispy fried onions, served with spätzle and cranberries. And it was good - the jagerschnitzel was tender and savory. The mushroom gravy had a delicious taste to it. The onion straws and bacon that sat on top of the jagerschnitzel were a great touch to the overall taste of the meal. And mixed with the mushroom sauce, the spätzle was a great side dish with the jagerschnitzel.

While the food at Hofbrauhaus Chicago probably wasn't the best German food I've had, I found it to be very good for what it was. I've always like Hofbrau beer and the house-brewed beer was every bit as good as the original Hofbrau lager I've had in the past. I'm glad I finally made it in to try their food and see what the place was all about. At night, I would probably say that the Hofbrauhaus Chicago would be a great place to go with a group of friends. In the daytime, that's when it would be a good place for a business lunch or for a quick bite after going shopping in the area. Either way, you're probably not going to be disappointed in the food or beer.

I've always been fascinated by flight. Although I don't like to fly that much due to the pain-in-the-ass procedures it takes just to get on a passenger plane these days, I find myself still looking up at a passing jet and still have the same young boy amazement that a plane like a 747 can even get up - and stay up - in the sky. I've also been fascinated by the weekend pilots who fly small planes from point to point to have a "hundred dollar burger" at a diner near a small municipal airport. They call it a "hundred dollar burger" because it usually costs them that in fuel just to get the burger and to fly back home. One of the more famous places in the Midwest to get a $100 burger - and more - is a restaurant at the Schaumburg Regional Airport, a place called Pilot Pete's.

Pilot Pete's has been on my radar (OK, pun intended) for awhile, ever since it was named one of the Top Ten restaurants by John Purner, the author of The $100 Hamburger annual guide to restaurants at municipal airports around the U.S. (I picked up my copy through iBooks for only $4.99!) Purner's book lists and rates restaurants at airports - from the greasy spoon diners to five-star fine dining establishments - and has been a handy guide for pilots for over 15 years.

First of all, there is no Pilot Pete. According to owner John Minginas, who has owned Pilot Pete's since 2009, Pete is a pilot in the Caribbean, hopping from island to island to enjoy the tropical and laid back way of life. Pilot Pete's has been in business since 1999 when the Village of Schaumburg built a new terminal building for the small airfield that also had space for meeting rooms, small shops and a nice restaurant.

My wife had gone into Chicago to meet a friend of hers to go on a shopping trip late last year. They stayed at a hotel I got for them near Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg and she called me one night when they were out to dinner. She said, "Have you ever heard of a place called Pilot Pete's," she asked.

I said, "Oh, yeah! I've got them on my 'restaurants to visit' list!"

She said, "Well, we're here now. The people at the hotel told us this was a great place to go." She said it was lively and looked like it had a pretty good menu. She told me later on that the food they had was excellent. I couldn't wait to give Pilot Pete's a shot. On a trip to Chicago a few weeks ago, I stayed out in the western suburbs and went to Pilot Pete's one evening.

Now, I've been past Pilot Pete's a handful of times, but never paid attention to the location. It's on a stretch on Irving Park Road in Schaumburg that I've traveled on in the past as kind of a short cut to a couple dealers I had in Elgin a few years ago. (see map) There's a large parking lot in front of the terminal building and steps going up to the main entrance of the building.

Walking past a couple rows of old airline seats in the hallway leading back to Pilot Pete's, I was greeted by a young lady at the hostess stand. At first, she tried to seat me at the bar. But after looking at the bar area and seeing only one seat open, I asked if I could sit in the dining room. She said that would be no problem and she took me to a booth near the windows that look out onto the tarmac at Schaumburg Regional Airport. She dropped off a menu and said my server would be by in a moment.

In John Purner's book, he wrote, "You can judge the food you're about to have (at a municipal airport restaurant) by the amount of airplane décor, and they have an inverse relationship." In other words, the more airplanes and aviation memorabilia on the walls and hanging from the ceiling, the worse the food. If you would follow that guideline at Pilot Pete's, you'd think that this would be an all-time horrible restaurant. As you walk past cases of model commercial airplanes, Pilot Pete's opens up into what looks like a large hanger with a curved metal ceiling. A small experimental two-seater plane hangs from the ceiling along with murals of planes and aviation equipment. To add to the flair of the decor, Pilot Pete's has a bit of a Caribbean feel with small tropical trees and plants, a large shark, and colorful table coverings. The bar area had an awning that gave it sort of a tropical cabana look. There is a semi-circular room in the back of the place - the Balloon Room - that is used for parties and private functions.

Looking through the menu, I found a number of items that included seafood appetizers, soups and salads, full entrees, steaks, seafood, a number of sandwiches and a hamburger that was given 5 stars by the $100 Hamburger. Now, I have a rule of thumb that a restaurant that has an extensive menu probably can do all of it well, but not very good. So with the airplane decor guideline from John Purner and my "too much food on the menu" rule, one would think Pilot Pete's would be a total washout.

One of the things they're famous for at Pilot Pete's is their lobster nachos - they take a whole steamed lobster tail, chop it up and mix it with chopped chives, celery, diced tomatoes, white pepper, and a special sauce, and then it's put on top of housemade tortilla chips. Then they top that with colby cheddar cheese, slice jalapenos and served with guacamole, pico de gallo and sour cream. Oh my GOD!!! The description alone is making my stomach do jumping jacks right now, but the picture (courtesy Chicago's Best.com) is making my stomach scream.

While I seriously thought about getting one of their burgers, I was looking through the "Specials List" they had for the evening and I saw a pot roast bake that featured slow-roasted black angus beef mixed with mushrooms, green beans and peas, then topped with garlic-horseradish mashed potatoes and cheddar cheese. It had been a long week and I thought I needed a little comfort food, but that sounded somewhat heavy to me.

Looking at the menu, at the top of the "Signature Dishes" list was Pilot Pete's "World Famous Pot Roast". While the title was rather audacious, it got my attention. They slow cook a black angus roast in its own juices, then serve it with garlic-horseradish mashed potatoes and a vegetable of the day. It was similar to the pot roast bake, but was lighter. I decided to go with that for my meal.

The only problem was that no one had come over to greet me and ask for a drink order after the hostess took me to the booth. It was over 10 minutes and I was still sitting there, checking out the menu for a second time to see if there was anything I missed (there wasn't) while I waited for a server to come around. I was "this" close to getting up and leaving when a young lady came over to my table. She asked what I'd like to drink (a Lagunitas IPA they had on tap) and then asked if I knew what I wanted to eat. After I ordered, it took a another five plus minutes for her to bring me the pint of beer.

After getting a salad with fresh greens and French dressing for a starter, another person brought out my dinner. It featured a generous portion of chunks of slow roasted beef with a mound of the garlic-horseradish mashed potatoes and a vegetable medley consisting of green beans, sliced carrots and chopped broccoli. There was a small bit of brown gravy on top of the beef. It looked like the quintessential American comfort food meal.

The beef - at first bite - was a little dried out and a little chewy. But on the bottom of the plate sitting in its juice, the beef placed there was tender, moist and very flavorful. The horseradish-garlic mashed potatoes were more garlic than horseradish, but it wasn't a lot of garlic, either. The garlic-horseradish potatoes that I make at home from time to time have a lot more flavor than the ones at Pilot Pete's. The vegetable medley was sort of a throw away for me as I was concentrating on the beef and having a few bites of the mashed potatoes. Overall, the taste of the meal was very good and very satisfying.

OK, so maybe both John Purner and I are wrong about our preconceived notions on some restaurants. I think we were both wrong on Pilot Pete's. Even with all the aircraft memorabilia throughout the place and an extensive menu I thought my meal was very good. It was the proverbial "spot-hitter" for me. The value was also very good - the meal with a beer before the tip (not a big one because the service was rather choppy) was just under $20 bucks. And it was a lot of food. I want to go back to Pilot Pete's during the daytime when the weather is nicer, sit near the windows to watch the planes fly in and out, and have one of their burgers. The combination of good food, a good selection of beer and watching planes coming and going sounds like a fun and relaxing afternoon to me.

I was seeing some dealers in the northern Chicago suburbs on a recent trip there and I passed by a place at the corner of Lake St. and Milwaukee Ave. in Glenview that I hadn't noticed before - BurgerFi. My interest was piqued and it was time for dinner, so I circled back and stopped it to see what BurgerFi was all about.

It turns out that BurgerFi is a chain of upscale burger places based out of Florida. It was started in 2010 by three partners - John Rosatti, Lee Goldberg and David Manero. Rosatti was raised in a working class family helping his father work on boats. Using his mechanical know-how, Rosatti got into automobiles and opened a body shop in 1968. He parlayed his business acumen into buying an Oldsmobile dealership in Brooklyn, NY in 1975. Eventually, Rosatti's dealership grew into sixteen brands and he renamed it the Plaza Auto Mall - one of the largest auto dealerships in the nation. He expanded the Plaza Auto Mall into Nevada, Florida and New Jersey.

Pictured right - John Rosatti with ladyfriend Dawn Kimball. (Picture courtesy Newportseen.com) I'll save the editorial comment about the fact that money CAN buy you love.

Rosatti's first love was boats and he built 15 yachts including a 168 foot super-yacht that he still owns. He also began to dabble in the restaurant business opening such iconic South Florida eateries as Vic and Angelo's and The Office. His partner in the restaurants was David Manero, a longtime restaurateur in the South Florida area. Along with Lee Goldberg - who was a successful franchisee for both Wendy's and Popeye's Chicken - the three came up with the BurgerFi concept. They wanted to have burgers made-to-order with top quality, organically-grown Black Angus beef, French fries that are cooked in peanut oil, and using a number of locally grown toppings and ingredients in their food. (BurgerFi is short for burgerfication, a term the group came up with.)

Two years after opening their first BurgerFi location in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, FL, Rosatti and Goldberg sued David Manero (whose real last name is Mainiero) over charges of embezzlement and money laundering. Manero had suddenly split from the company a few months before and no one really knew the reason why until the lawsuit came public.

It was also alleged that Manero's son, who was expected to open a BurgerFi location in Southern California, had decided to open his own restaurant, Urbun Burger, instead of becoming a BurgerFi franchisee. Rosatti and Goldberg alleged that the younger Manero had taken all the equipment that was given to him by the group with the stipulation that it would be a BurgerFi and had not compensated the corporation. That lawsuit was eventually settled with the restaurant becoming a BurgerFi, but I couldn't find if the lawsuit against the elder Manero - who with actor Danny DeVito once owned DeVito's in South Florida until it closed in 2010 - had been resolved.

Today, with Rosatti as CEO and Goldberg's son as chief council, there are over 75 BurgerFi locations in over 20 states from Florida up the Eastern Seaboard with locations as far away as Anchorage, AK and Napa, CA. In the Midwest, there are BurgerFi locations in Kansas City, Lawrence, KS, Ann Arbor, MI and the one in Glenview, IL. The Glenview location opened in the summer of 2013 in the new Glenview Commons shopping area on the southeast corner of Lake St. and Milwaukee Ave. (see map) and is owned by developer Altaf Hemani and accountant Ahmed Lakhani.

The interior of the Glenview location has sort of a contemporary industrial decor with industrial-type lights handing from a metal ceiling, slat-wood paneling, with metal chairs and tables on a concrete floor. For as many lights that they had in the place, the lighting wasn't overpowering.

The concept is to order at the front counter, take a buzzer pager and get your food when you're paged. The menu is located on the wall above the open window to the kitchen and in addition to burgers, they also feature vegetable burgers at BurgerFi, as well as a 28-day-aged brisket burger, hot dogs - including a Kobe-beef hot dog and an apple/chicken hot dog - fries, onion rings and frozen custard shakes. I didn't know it at the time, but BurgerFi also has a secret menu - ala In-N-Out Burger - that includes a Supreme Burger with grilled mushrooms, bacon and American cheese, 1/2 + 1/2 burger with a beef patty and a vegetable quinoa burger patty, and alternative style fries that are smothered in cheese, grilled onions, mustard and a housemade sauce - BurgerFi sauce - that is basically a mayo-based sauce with 15 different spices and herbs added in.

I was met by a rather indifferent lady at the front counter and I noticed that their regular burgers were all doubles - flat grilled and thin. But you can also order your own "made-to-order" burgers - single, double or triple patties. Then you get your choice of four different cheeses and toppings such as Peter Luger steak sauce, organic ketchup, a fried egg, hickory-smoked bacon or grilled mushrooms for an upcharge. Toppings and condiments such as regular ketchup, yellow mustard, A1 steak sauce, jalapenos, garlic mayo, barbecue sauce and regular mayo could be added for free.

I ended up ordering a double burger with chopped onions, grilled mushrooms, Swiss cheese and bacon. They had a special that evening where I could get a regular order of fries at a reduced price. I thought, "What the hell..." and ordered up some of their fries. Then the lady asked me if I wanted any seasonings or toppings on the fries - cheese sauce, chili, chili and cheese, parmesan cheese and herbs, a spicy cajun seasoning, and sea salt and vinegar. I was about to tell her to put nothing on the fries when I thought about the cajun seasoning. When I asked about that, she very disinterestedly said, "I like the cajun seasoning..." Her overwhelming endorsement of the cajun seasoning - no matter how underwhelming it really was - was enough for me.

They also had a number of local and national microbrews on tap. I ordered up a Samuel Adams Winter Lager. When she told me how much it all was - $16 bucks with tax - I was a big taken aback. And that was with a reduced price on the fries and a $2.00 special on the beer that evening. I can almost imagine how much it would all cost if they didn't have the specials that evening.

I waited about 10 or 12 minutes sipping on my beer before the pager buzzer began to vibrate somewhat loudly on the metal-topped table. I went up to the counter to grab my platter of burger and fries. Ketchup and mustard were in container pumps on the side by the soft drinks and I poured some on my platter for the fries.

The first thing I noticed about the burger is that they brand the BurgerFi logo into the top of the bun. I thought it was a nice little touch, but nothing that added to the value of the burger. The burger was served in a small wax paper bag and was thick with chopped fresh onions and crispy bacon on top, and a lot of oozing Swiss cheese covering the burger patties and grilled mushrooms.

And the taste of the burger was not bad - pretty good, as a matter of fact. I'm not certain it was worth the money I paid for it, but it seemed to be a fine tasting burger. Everything went very well with one another on the burger and nothing seemed to overpower the other tastes. The bun was lightly grilled, but it was light and airy and held together very well with each bite. It was simply an above average - but not great - burger.

The fries, to me, were the highlight. The rather stoic counter person should have been more exuberant about the cajun seasonings on the fries. The seasoning had a nice kick, but not enough that it completely set your tongue on fire. On their own, the fries were very good - they were sort of that limp style of fries that had a bit of a greasy taste to them from the peanut oil they cook them in. With the cajun seasonings mixed in, the fries were out of this world. I usually don't get fries all that often with burgers, but I'm glad I went with the fries this particular evening.

BurgerFi is setting their sights on having upward of 250 outlets by the end of this year. All I can say is that you'll have to give one a try - that is, if you haven't already. While I thought the burger - for what I got - was a little overpriced, it was well above average in taste and quality. I wouldn't put it in the same league as a Five Guys, but they do hold their own in what is becoming a rather crowded landscape of upscale burger joints popping up around the Midwest and beyond.

I have been wanting to get to Edzo's Burger Shop in Evanston for a long, long time. Since they opened in 2009, Edzo's has been getting nothing but raves for their burgers. I was in Evanston recently calling on a dealer there and I made the time to stop into Edzo's for lunch.

The driving force behind Edzo's is Eddie "Edzo" Lakin. The path Lakin has taken to get to Edzo's has been one with a number of twists and turns along the way. The Chicago area native started out as a political science major at the University of Illinois and started to work at a record store after graduation. Seeing no future in selling records and CD's, Lakin decided to go to culinary school. He enrolled at the Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago - part of the Le Cordon Bleu umbrella of culinary schools - and immediately found his calling in life.

After graduating from culinary school, Lakin started to work at a fine dining restaurant in downtown Chicago. He ended up going to Europe with some friends on an extended vacation and fell in love with Barcelona. Lakin would make authentic Catalan meals for lunch, then would go nap on the beach each day, then party at night.

Lakin ended up back in Chicago and started to work at the upscale Tru restaurant, working under famed chef Rick Tramonto. Like most young chefs trying to find the perfect fit, Lakin worked at a handful of restaurants in the Chicago area before going to work as a general manager for the restaurant group that runs the Sopraffina Cafe's in the downtown area of Chicago. That job lasted until Lakin was laid off from his position in the fall of 2008.

Deciding to take some time off from the restaurant business, Lakin stayed at home for a few months to hang with his two young children while he contemplated his next move. Lakin started a blog that shared his thoughts of restaurants that he had visited in the Chicago area (sort of like Road Tips!).

The economy had gone south and he knew that being a corporate chef would be a tough proposition. Lakin didn't really want to run his own restaurant, but he knew he would have to in order to make any amount of money to raise a family. Inspired by the burger joints that Lakin's father would take him to as a young boy, along with inspiration from Doug Sohn, the man behind the recently closed Hot Doug's, and Lakin's fascination with Five Guys burgers, he came up with the concept of Edzo's.

Through the process of getting his new restaurant concept up and going, he authored a second blog - Chicagomatic - that detailed each step along the way to open his new place. He opened Edzo's in downtown Evanston near the Northwestern University campus in October of 2009.

Starting out, Edzo's was only open from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. Lakin wanted to have a life outside of his restaurant with his family and he knew that if he had longer hours he'd have to sacrifice quality time with his two young children. The short hours didn't matter to the throngs who came to Edzo's - sometimes with the lines snaking out the door. Edzo's Burger Shop was a hit.

In 2012, Lakin decided to open up a second location in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago. The business had grown to a point where Lakin employed two managers at both locations, all four with a culinary school background. With that, he was able to extend his hours at both locations - open until 10 p.m. six days a week at the Evanston Edzo's, to 8 p.m. three days a week (Sun/Tues/Wed) and open until midnight on Thursday through Saturday at the Lincoln Park location. (Edzo's both locations are closed on Monday.)

It was around 1:30 when I got into Edzo's in Evanston. I was able to find parking on the street just down the way from the little restaurant on Sherman, right where it branches off to Orrington St. (see map) Edzo's isn't huge - it maybe seats 50 people - and it was past the noon/lunch rush so I pretty much had my pick of any table. (Note - Edzo's asks that patrons do not "table sit" while someone else in their party is standing in line to place an order. And they're militant about it. That's only fair, in my book.)

The open kitchen allows those in line to see the line cooks putting the burgers on the grill and prepping other foods that Edzo's offers. Edzo's offers both 4 ounce flat-grilled and 8 ounce char-grilled burgers, the best of both worlds for burger aficionados. The beef is ground fresh each morning and on a good day Edzo's will go through over 100 pounds of beef.

The menu is located on the wall as you come into the place. In addition to the flat-grilled and char-grilled burgers, Edzo's features a variety of hot dogs, brats and sausages, a grilled chicken sandwich, healthy choices such as a veggie burger, a turkey burger and a portobello mushroom burger, and something Edzo's calls the "PB & B" burger - it's peanut butter and bacon.

As a burger upgrade, Edzo's also features naturally grown grass fed beef from such places as Slagel Family Farm outside of Geneva, Illinois, Rain Crow Ranch in Southern Missouri, and CDK Angus Ranch in Northwest Illinois. In the summertime, Edzo's will procure fresh produce from Green City Market- a seasonal farmer's market in the heart of Chicago - and you may find toppings that will include peas or squash. Lakin allows his managers to spread their culinary wings from time to time coming up with eclectic burgers, just to keep things from getting stale in the kitchen.

But what a lot of people remember Edzo's for is their variety of fries. They're painstakingly prepped and double-fried before they add any number of seasonings to the fries - or serve them plain. Cheese fries features Merkts cheddar cheese, they have garlic fries topped with a garlic/parsley butter, the "Taylor Street" fries are topped with a beef au jus gravy, giardiniera and sweet peppers, and truffle fries topped with truffle salt and parmesan cheese.

Edzo's also has their "Angry Fries" where they use four kinds of spicy seasonings, and their "Buffalo Fries" topped with a Buffalo hot sauce, blue cheese and served with celery. But they seem to be most famous for their lobster fries - they toss cooked fries in drawn butter and Maine lobster meat, then drizzle a lemon-saffron aioli on top of that, then finish it with chopped chives and - for good measure - more lobster meat. I understand that the lobster fries are a hit-and-miss item on the menu.

I was interested in getting a burger only on this visit. (I almost got the garlic fries, but I had more appointments later in the day and I didn't want to offend anyone with my breath.) I ended up ordering a double flat-grilled burger with everything - ketchup, yellow mustard, onion and pickle. They have five different types of cheese to choose from - I ordered pepper jack cheese. Additional toppings include jalapenos, garlic butter, spicy giardiniera, and a fried egg. I added bacon and sauteed mushrooms to my burger. They don't serve alcohol at Edzo's, but they do have high-end milkshakes and malts on the menu. Since I couldn't get a beer, I ended up getting a water from the fountain.

I found a seat up toward the front and they called my name when my burger was ready. The burger was served on wax paper on a small plate. The bun crown stood high above the double burger patties with melted pepper jack cheese oozing out from underneath. The bacon was criss-crossed under the patties and bits of sauteed mushrooms peeked out from the bottom.

The first bite was one of those where I went, "Mmmmmm...." It was a wonderful burger. The meat was a little crisp on the outside from the flat grill, but the juices inside were still there. The bun was a great compliment to the taste of the burger - a good burger has to have a good bun. The bun was lightly toasted and held together very well with the juicy burger. With the pepper jack cheese, the sauteed mushrooms and the crisp bacon, this was an outstanding burger.

Don't walk - run to the nearest Edzo's Burger Shop. This was one of the finest burgers I've ever eaten. I can't believe it took me 5 years to finally make it to Edzo's. I can't wait to get back at some point - when I don't have any appointments left - to get a burger and the garlic fries. I liked the atmosphere and the attitude of Edzo's, and even though they don't serve beer this was a place that I immediately fell in love with. It was simply a killer burger.

On a recent trip to Chicago, I was out in western suburb of Elmhurst for the night. Looking around for someplace new to try out I came across a burger joint/bar that I wasn't familiar with - HB Jones. I thought I'd give the place a try.

The back story on HB Jones centers on a fictional world explorer by the name of Horatio B. Jones whose favorite food - a good burger - kept him going in the face of danger while descending Mount Everest. Upon reaching base camp, Jones was rewarded with a burger of "Everest" proportions.

Cute story, but the real back story involves restaurateur Anthony Gambino - who owns Salseria in Elmhurst - and three investors - Bob Ceddia, Ken Patchak and Alfredo Luna. The group turned what was the former Good Earth Market in Elmhurst into the concept burger joint in December of 2012. Initially, the place was going to be called Hamburger Jones. However, they shorted the name of the restaurant to just HB Jones around the time it opened.

Hamburger Jones is located at the southeast corner of S. York and Vallette streets on the south side of Elmhurst. There's a parking lot in the rear of the building that is accessible off of E. Vallette. (see map)

The Good Earth Market featured a greenhouse in the back part of the building. The group turned the greenhouse into a four-seasons dining room with a small bar area. It was a nice night when I was there, but it was raining lightly off and on. There is a small outdoor patio dining area, but no one was seated out there due the rain.

The front part of the building that faces S. York features a dining room and a larger bar area. Most of the people in the place were seated out in the greenhouse. That's where I ended up seated for my meal.

As I was going through the food menu, my server for the evening - Samantha - came over to greet me and ask if I wanted something to drink. HB Jones has a number of Midwestern specialty beers and microbrews available and I ended up getting Bell's Two Hearted Ale.

The burgers on the menu at HB Jones all feature 10 ounce grilled beef patties. (For littler appetites, they also make 4 ounce "slider" burgers.) But they also have a number of other items including chicken sandwiches and wraps, skirt steak, meat loaf and pulled pork sandwiches, a slew of salads and soups, along with entrees such as ribs and meat loaf.

They have about a dozen specialty burgers on the menu that includes the Blue Cheese Wedge burger that features blue cheese, iceberg lettuce, sliced tomatoes and a raw red onion; as well as the Mexican Standoff that was topped with chorizo, Chihuahua cheese, guacamole, pico de gallo, jalapeno salsa and shredded lettuce. For the truly adventurous - and the truly hungry - the Jones Climbs Everest burger featured 3 - 10 ounce beef patties topped with American and Swiss cheese, bacon, grilled onions, lettuce, tomato and pickles and topped with a house-made Jonzy sauce (which is basically a 1000 Island dressing).

You can also "build your own burger" and I told Samantha that's the route that I was going to take. She showed me a piece of paper on the table that allowed me to pick out exactly what I wanted. Other than beef patties, you can also choose from ground turkey, Italian sausage, smashed meatball or a veggie patty. Four types of buns - classic, whole wheat, pretzel and kaiser - are available. Types of cheese includes American, Swiss, provolone, blue cheese, cheddar jack and Merkts sharp cheddar cheese spread all for a dollar upcharge.

They also have a number of free toppings including the regular compliment of condiments along with grilled or raw onions, jalapenos, the aforementioned Jonzy Sauce, and barbecue sauce. For a slight upcharge, you can get sauteed mushrooms, giardiniera, or fire-roasted jalapenos. And for a $2 buck upcharge, you can choose a fried egg (thought that was a little high priced for just one egg), thick cut bacon, chorizo or pulled pork added to the burger.

I ended up ordering a burger with sauteed mushrooms, Swiss cheese and thick cut bacon with a kaiser bun. For sides I had a choice of hand-cut fries, tater tots, garlic mashed potatoes, cole slaw, a veggie skewer or mac and cheese. For $4.00 more, you could get the salad bar that they have at HB Jones. I went with the fries. And I asked if I could get some mayo on the side to dip my fries into. Very European!

The burger that Samantha served me was huge. It featured a copious amount of Swiss cheese melted on top of the bacon and sauteed mushrooms. Large bread and butter pickles came on the side.

The burger, itself, was very good. It was cooked to a perfect medium with a hint of pink in the middle. And it was very juicy. It was a good 5 napkin burger, at least. The bun held together well with all the juiciness in the burger. But the bun wasn't all that large to where it was the right ratio of bun to burger. Sometimes you get a bun that is too large and it makes the burger sort of too bread-y. But the one at HB Jones was the right size.

The fries were very good, but I was having trouble finishing up the burger. For one of the first times in a long time, I left a couple three bites of the burger. It was not because it was bad - far from it. It was just a lot more food than I like to eat that late in the evening.

For my first visit to HB Jones, I'll have to say that I was pretty impressed with the burger. Their beer list is good and they also have a number of specialty - including ice cream - liquor drinks. Samantha's service was fine and I liked the greenhouse dining area at the place. The only quibble I had was that the burger was a little expensive - $14 bucks with all the toppings - but it was a big burger to start out. If you make it to HB Jones, make sure you bring your appetite.

In the western suburbs on a recent trip to the greater Chicago area, it was getting to be around lunch and I was hungry for some barbecue. I hit the GPS and looked for barbecue places in the area. One of the first ones that popped up was a place called Q-BBQ in downtown La Grange. I headed over to find that place and was pleasantly surprised to see a nice building along La Grange Road in downtown La Grange. (see map) I was able to find parking nearby and went into the place.

Michael LaPidas is a graduate of Northern Illinois University in DeKalb and is a self-described "trained-eater, not a trained-chef". After college, he opened a Roly-Poly sandwich franchise in the Q-BBQ location in downtown La Grange and dabbled in local politics and in charity work as a fundraiser.

LaPidas discovered a love for good barbecue after having a particularly good beef brisket during a trip in the South and and began to travel extensively looking for the best barbecue places. Immersing himself into the culture of barbecue, LaPidas learned about smoking techniques, what types of wood to use, different types of sauces - everything that went into what he called "America's original comfort food." After a year of figuring things out, LaPidas opened Q-BBQ in 2009.

LaPidas must have done a good job of figuring things out - he opened a second location in Naperville in 2012 and the third Q-BBQ location opened in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood in the fall of 2013. Also in 2013, Q-BBQ snagged a coveted Bib Gourmand rating from the Michelin restaurant guide for Chicago. That was something I never realized until after going to the original Q-BBQ in La Grange earlier this summer.

The interior of the restaurant has sort of a contemporary industrial look. There's an outdoor patio seating area for the warm months with a main dining room that is split in two by a center aisle that takes patrons to the ordering area. The menu is on chalkboard on the wall behind the front counter with a small glass door refrigerator stocked with bottled beers. Country music from the 80's and 90's was playing in the background on the rib joint's sound system.

While the menu isn't extensive, it features Memphis-style (dry rubbed) baby back ribs, Carolina-style pulled pork, either chopped or sliced Texas-style beef brisket, along with pulled chicken and spicy sausage. I ordered up the two meat sampler plate of sliced brisket and pulled pork. The only problem was that I was told that they were out of brisket. Hmmm.... That was a problem because I don't really care for pulled barbecued chicken or sausage all that much. But then someone from back in the kitchen announced that they did, indeed, have brisket. I also ordered some of their baked beans and fries to go along with the meal. For a beer, I ordered the Lagunitas IPA.

The plate was brought out to me about five minutes after I ordered. It was served upon a metal sheet pan with wax paper below the food. There was a generous amount of sliced brisket and pulled pork sitting in opposite corners. A large amount of hand cut fries sat in the middle of the two meats with a small container of baked beans off to the side. A signature item at Q-BBQ - hush puppies - were provided at no charge. I'm not big on hush puppies, but I did try one and it wasn't too bad.

The sauces they had on the table included a sweet Memphis-style sauce that had a bit of a smoky flavor to it. The Texas spicy sauce got my attention with its subtle spicy flavor. There was also Carolina vinegar sauce that looked more like balsamic vinegar and it didn't do anything for me when I tried it on the pork. The fourth sauce - a mustard sauce - I didn't want any part of that. That may taste good on sausage, but I'm not too fond of mustard sauces for barbecue.

The meats were very good - the pulled pork was moist and flavorful. It had a nice bark on the outside of the meat and had a great taste on its own. Adding some of the Memphis sweet sauce along with the Texas spicy sauce gave it a great and zippy taste.

The brisket had a nice smoke ring around the outside. It, too, was very flavorful - easy to cut and chew. I like a good brisket and the brisket at Q-BBQ was some of the best I've had.

The baked beans had small chunks of pork mixed in with them. On their own, the beans were very good. I usually have to add some barbecue sauce to most baked beans I get at barbecue joints just to help jazz up the taste. But the beans at Q-BBQ didn't need much help at all.

And the hand-cut fries were thick with a crispy outside and a nice potato taste inside. I alternated dipping some of the fries into the sweet and the spicy barbecue sauces. But there was way too many of the fries for me to finish. By the time I got down with the pulled pork, brisket, a good portion of the beans and about half the fries I was stuffed. I'm not certain that I even got dinner that evening because I was still full from lunch.

Q-BBQ was a pleasant and surprising find. The overall dining experience was very good including the very good barbecue they serve at the place. Given the amount of barbecue places I've been to during my travels, Q-BBQ acquitted themselves very well against more established rib joints that I've been to. Q-BBQ is highly recommended by Road Tips.

A place that has been on my "Restaurants to Visit" list for the last year or so is a two location burger joint in the western suburbs of Chicago - Back Alley Burger. The story of how the husband and wife team ended up transitioning from fine dining chefs to running a gourmet burger joint was pretty interesting to me that I had to give the place a try at some point. On a recent visit to the Chicago area, I finally had the chance to do so.

Chris Spagnola was attending the California Culinary Academy (which is affiliated with the prestigious Le Cordon Bleu school of culinary arts) in San Francisco where he met fellow student Mary Libsch. The two found that they had a common philosophy in the type of cuisine they preferred - "ingredient driven". After graduating from culinary school, the two ended up in the western suburbs of Chicago where they opened a fine dining restaurant by the name of Maison in LaGrange.

Things change quickly in the restaurant industry and the two closed Maison a year or so after it opened. But they had caught the eye of veteran restaurateur Emilio Gervilla of Emilio's Tapas with a location in downtown Chicago and in the western suburbs. Along with Gervilla, Libsch and Spagnola partnered up for Emilio's Sunflower Bistro in the original Maison location. The little restaurant was more upscale than Emilio's Tapas and offered full entrees rather than the tapas plates at his other restaurants.

Pictured right - Chris and Mary Spagnola

The partnership with Gervilla eventually dissolved in 2009 and Libsch and Spagnola were again off to find another culinary path. In the same space they came up with the concept for Knead Marketplace, a little coffee shop/cafe in the daytime with an upscale bistro menu at night. They featured some gourmet burgers on the menu at Knead and the two - now married - saw a market for a casual, yet upscale burger place. They closed Knead in the fall of 2010 and remodeled the space into the first of two Back Alley Burger locations. Their second location in Elmhurst - the one I went to - opened in early 2013.

The meat for the burgers at Back Alley Burger is combination of grass fed and corn feed beef. The have a source for their beef that starts off feeding the cattle natural grass for the first two years, then putting the cattle on a strict corn diet for two months before slaughter. According the to Spagnola's, this method marbleizes the meat and gives it an extra juiciness.

Back Alley Burger has also garnered a reputation for their vegetarian burger - called one of the best in the Chicagoland area. After trying the usual black bean vegetarian burger, the two came upon a concoction of quinoa, edamame, peas, carrots, onions and cilantro into their veggie burger. It's certainly one of the more interesting veggie burger I've heard about.

The Elmhurst location of Back Alley Burger is just to the west of the intersection of Illinois Route 83 (a.k.a. Kingery Highway) and W. St. Charles Road. (see map) It's not a large place with a series of booths along the windowed walls and tables and chairs in the middle part of the main dining area. It has sort of a contemporary industrial look with diamond aluminum sheets for accent all around the place.

The menu is located on four flat screen television monitors over the main counter. In addition to their burgers, Back Alley Burger also features a number of salads and sandwiches along with a number of sides that include fresh cut potato fries, sweet potato fries, onion rings, fried pickles and any combination of chili, cheese and fries. There's also a kids menu at Back Alley Burger.

In addition to their veggie burger, they also have a ground turkey burger that is topped with green olives, mayo and Swiss cheese. The "Crabtastic" burger is a house-made slightly spicy crab cake burger topped with spicy jack cheese and a tartar sauce. They also have an Italian sausage burger, a gyro burger, and something called the "B.F.D." burger - the B.F.D. stands for Breakfast for Dinner. It features an Italian sausage patty topped with a fried egg, green onions, cheddar cheese and spicy mustard on a pretzel bun.

Some of the featured burgers at Back Alley Burger include the "Maui Wowie" burger that features a burger patty topped with fried Spam and pineapple and finished with a sweet barbecue sauce. The "Brooklyn Burger" has a patty topped with warm pastrami, 1000 Island dressing and sauerkraut. The "Meister Burger" is topped with Merkts cheddar cheese spread, salami and sauerkraut and served on a pretzel bun. And for the brave there's the "Most Insane-est Hottest Burger Ever-est" which starts out with a 1/2 pound beef patty and topped with Trinidad scorpion pepper sauce, fried jalapenos, habanero jam, bhut jolokia pepper flakes and Thai chile cream cheese and served on a cayenne spiced Kaiser bun. Yow!

They also have an extensive "Build Your Own Burger" selection. They have two different sizes of beef patty - a 1/3 pound and a 1/2 pound patty. (Turkey, veggie and grilled chicken breast can also be ordered.) They have five different types of buns from a Kaiser, pretzel, whole wheat, white and Pumpernickel. For 75 cents each they have a variety of cheese offerings including American, cheddar, Merkts cheddar, spicy jack cheese and blue cheese. From there you have your pick of nearly two dozen free toppings including white or red onions, grilled onions, pico de gallo, chipotle ketchup, cucumber slices, and jalapenos. For a buck more each, you can add bacon, grilled mushrooms, a fried egg, chili, salami, Spam or any of the hot items found on the "Most Insane-est" burger.

I went with a 1/2 pound burger patty and I added Swiss cheese, sauteed mushrooms and bacon. I had them put the chipotle ketchup on it along with yellow mustard and chopped white onions. And I got the pretzel bun. For a drink, I got a Lagunitas IPA from their extensive beer list.

The burger came out with knife embedded in the top of the pretzel bun. I know this drives the author of the great Midwest food blog Jeni Eats absolutely crazy when they do this and it mildly annoys me. The burger was big, but it didn't really need cut in half. And it was just a butter knife, not a steak knife. Put it on the side, please.

Taking the knife out and taking a look at the what was underneath the hood, it unveiled a thick slab of Swiss cheese hiding sauteed mushrooms and bacon slices on top of the burger patty. There was already a lot of juice on the plate from the burger.

The first bite was one of "Wow! This is a very good burger!" I had ordered it medium, but it was plenty pink in the middle - more of a medium rare. I like my burgers cooked a little bit more than that, but this was still a fine burger. The juice was pouring out of the burger making it a definite 7-napkin lunch. Pictured left is the aftermath of the burger.

The pretzel bun was a great touch to the overall taste of the burger, the thick cut bacon was a nice addition, and even though I couldn't get much of the chipotle taste of the ketchup, it wasn't overpowering. This was simply an excellent burger.

I've got to hand it to the Spagnola's - they make a mighty fine burger at Back Alley Burger. While it was a tad undercooked for my liking, it was still one of those burgers where I went "Mmmmm...." after the first bite. It was juicy, flavorful and almost more than I could handle with one burger. Do yourself a favor - stop at one of the Back Alley Burger locations in the western suburbs of Chicago. You won't be disappointed.

On a continuing food tour of restaurants near the hotel I stay at near O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, there's a small Mexican restaurant that I've seen many times that I thought I'd give a try one evening - Laredo's Embassy of Mexican Food - in Rosemont. It's in the same strip center as one of my go-to Indian Restaurants in the Chicago area, Maharaja. (Click here to see my entry on Maharaja.) Actually, I was planning on going to go to Maharaja that night, but decided that a margarita would hit the spot. I went into Laredo's instead. (see map)

There's not much information on Laredo's on the Internet. I couldn't find out who the owner was, if there's any affiliation with other restaurants, or even the history of the place. Some Mexican restaurants don't like to create a lot of attention for themselves for a couple reasons I can think of. But Laredo's did have a pretty extensive web site that featured daily specials, a list of specialty margaritas and a full menu.

I went into Laredo's around 8 p.m. that cold early spring evening when winter was telling people in Chicago that it was still hanging on. Their cantina is to the left as you come into the restaurant. Large columns were on the bar and the back bar had a sort of blu-ish backlit hue to it highlighting the numerous bottle of tequila they had on hand.

The main dining area is on the right as you come into Laredo's. I was greeted by a young man and I was seated in a booth along a wall that was opposite another row of booths with a colorful painted mural on the wall. There were murals throughout Laredo's including this rather disturbing one in a back dining area. For even as late as it was in the evening for dinner, the place was about half full with more people coming in as I was there. It appeared to be a pretty popular place. My server for the evening, Nahum, came over to ask what I wanted to drink. I ordered a Patron margarita - a big one.

And he got me a big one. It was rather interesting because it had an orange, lemon and lime wedge. And it was chock full of Patron. Whew! It was packed with tequila! Nahum also brought over some chips and salsa. The chips were all right, as was the salsa. But the margarita gave me a nice little buzz.

It's your typical Mexican fare at Laredo's - beef, pork, chicken and seafood - with the usual enchiladas, burritos, and tacos. I was thinking about getting either a beef or pork enchilada, but they didn't seem to have them on the menu. Oh, they had a beef tip and a shredded beef enchilada as part of an enchilada combination dinner, but not as part of a regular entree. I saw that they had chicken enchiladas with the green tomatillo sauce, but not pork. I'm sure I could have asked if they could have made them up for me and they would have complied, but I started to look at something else - the chimichangas.

The chimichangas were described as being made with a 12" flour tortilla and you had your choice of either beef tips or chicken for $10.50. For $2.00 more, you can get steak in the chimichanga. For $3.00 more, you can get grilled shrimp. My wife and I had been to a Mexican restaurant in the Quad Cities a few nights before and she got a shrimp quesadilla with grilled shrimp. I love good flat grilled shrimp at a Mexican restaurant and decided to get that.

As I was finishing up my margarita getting ready to trade that for a Sol beer, I noticed a younger guy come out of the kitchen with a guacamole cart. A couple had just sat down at a booth across from me and he wheeled it up to their table and asked them if they wanted any fresh guacamole. I thought, "Well, crap! I would have liked to have had some fresh guacamole made up for me!" A group of three people came in after that and he wheeled the cart over to them. It's a great selling tool at a Mexican restaurant - how can you say "no" to fresh guacamole made tableside? I was actually a little bummed they didn't ask me if I wanted any.

I guess I expected the chimichanga to be a little larger than it was. And instead of whole grilled shrimp, they chopped the shrimp. I wasn't certain it was a 12" flour tortilla to begin with, but it was folded under on the ends so it could have been before it was deep-fried.

And the chimichanga was.... all right. I mean, it wasn't bad, but it wasn't what I was quite expecting. I didn't care for the chopped shrimp rather than the whole shrimp I normally see at other Mexican restaurants. The chimichanga was also pretty cheesy in the middle covering the taste of the shrimp pretty well. I thought back and should have ordered the beef tips in the chimichanga rather than the shrimp. I popped some of the guacamole and sour cream on top to help with the taste, but I can't say that I was impressed with the overall taste of the chimichanga.

The beans and rice were pedestrian, at best. But that's all right - I hardly ever eat refried beans and Mexican rice at restaurants any more. I've gotten to the point that I tell them to not even bring the rice and beans because they won't get eaten, even if they charge me full price.

Would I go back to Laredo's Embassy of Mexican Food? Hmmm.... possibly. For basic Mexican food fare, it was all right. The margarita - I couldn't complain about one bit. It was packed full of a generous pour of Patron. The chips and salsa were, once again, just all right. Laredo's didn't knock my socks off on my visit. But in terms of average Mexican food, it pretty much fits the bill.

Staying out near O'Hare International Airport on an early Spring trip to Chicago, I wasn't feeling myself all day long. The long, cold Winter was trying to hang on and the wind off Lake Michigan was bone-chilling. I felt like I needed some comfort food for dinner that evening to take off the edge. I was told about a small place in Des Plaines by the name of Sunrise Grill by one of the sales guys at Music Direct a while back. I decided to give the Sunrise Grill a try that night.

The Sunrise Grill is a rather unique place. It's a small coffee shop/cafe in a small strip mall on E. Touhy Ave. in Des Plaines (see map) and they do breakfast, lunch and dinner. However, their dinner menu is unlike any small coffee shop that I've been to. It's then that owner/chef Jose Medina gets to spread his culinary wings. Medina opened the Sunrise Grill in 2008 after being the head chef at the Summit of Uptown, an upscale retirement home in nearby Park Ridge. He is joined in the restaurant by his wife, Maria. They serve dinner Tuesday thru Saturday night until 9 p.m. with the restaurant opening for breakfast most days at 6:00 a.m. (7:00 a.m. on Sundays.)

Years ago, I had a boss that said that a restaurant in a strip mall isn't worth eating at. I've since found that is a narrow minded view as over the years I've found some surprising places in strip malls that have fabulous food. I was told that Sunrise Grill was one of those places. I pulled up in front of the place around 7:30 one blustery evening. I was greeted by a server who said I could pretty much pick out where I wanted to sit. A row of booths were along the front windows and the east wall with a number of chairs with tables in the middle part of the room. Twin doors entered into a second dining area that is used for private parties and overflow when the restaurant fills up. And I understand it fills up rather quickly.

Each night, Sunrise Grill has a series of dinner specials - most nights they're posted on their Facebook page. A lady server came over to bring me some water and drop off a menu. She pointed out the specials that night on a board near the front counter. "It's pasta night," she said. And it smelled pretty damned good in there. In fact, I thought I could smell garlic as I got out of my car in front of the place. The garlic scent hit me when I opened the door.

The three pasta specials that night were a shrimp and orzo primavera - orzo pasta with asparagus, cherry tomatoes and wilted lettuce in a rich housemade marinara sauce topped with grilled shrimp; a grilled chicken breast with a housemade alfredo sauce and linguine; and pasta shells stuffed with meat and cheese and baked, then topped with their marinara sauce. Both the grilled chicken alfredo and the stuffed pasta shells sounded great.

Their main dinner menu features such diverse culinary choices such as a lamb shank, skirt steak, pan-seared center-cut pork chops, bone-in short ribs, or sauteed salmon. As I said, this was not your typical greasy spoon diner in a strip mall.

But I was needing something more along the lines of a good ol' "stick-to-your-bones" meal. If you're looking for a hot beef sandwich, they don't have it at Sunrise Grill. But they do have beef stroganoff. And that's what I ordered. I got a house salad with that and I had my choice of five or six dressings. I ended up getting the creamy French dressing.

My server brought out my salad along with a small basket of garlic bread. The salad featured a mix of greens with chopped tomatoes, cucumbers and onions topped with a thin crouton. The creamy French dressing was all right - I couldn't tell if it was housemade - but the salad, itself, had a lot of taste sensations going on.

The garlic bread was oven toasted and topped with some Italian seasonings and a slight amount of garlic. The bread was crispy on the outside and chewy in the middle. It was very good.

I had just finished up my salad when she brought out the beef stroganoff. The presentation would rival many upscale restaurants that I've been to. The beef stroganoff was in a large bowl with a wide rim that was sprinkled with fresh chopped parsley. The beef tenderloin tips were sauteed and placed on a bed of small noodles, then it was topped with a housemade mushroom sauce and a dollop of sour cream.

The taste was exquisite. The beef tips were tender and flavorful. The noodles were cooked perfectly, but the mushroom sauce was to die for. It had a zesty taste, but it wasn't overpowering like some mushroom sauces can be. I knew it would be way too much food for me to eat and I tried to quit a couple three times. But each time I went back and got another fork full to draw up to my mouth. When my server came over to check on me, I pushed the bowl away and said, "Please, take this away before I eat more." At that point I had - maybe - two bites left. The beef stroganoff at Sunrise Grill was - quite simply - a spot hitter.

Sunrise Grill is a BYOB place - they encourage you to bring in your own bottle of wine or beer, and they'll open the wine for you at no charge if you don't have a bottle opener. The food I had at Sunrise Grill was surprisingly good - but I was warned by the guy at Music Direct that it would knock my socks off. And it certainly did. The Sunrise Grill is certainly a big tip from the road that Road Tips is designed to bring its readers. It's truly a hidden gem in the Northwest suburbs of Chicago.